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ROLLO'S  VACATION. 


THE  KOLLO  SERIES 


IS    COMPOSED    OF    FOURTEEN    VOLUMES,    VIZ. 


Hollo  Learning  to  Talk. 
Hollo  Learning  to  Read. 
Rollo  at  Work. 
Rollo  at  Play. 
Rollo  at  School. 
Hollo's  Vacation. 
Hollo's  Experiments. 


Rolio's  Museum. 
Hollo's  Travels. 
Rolio's  Correspondence. 
Rolio's  Philosophy— Water. 
Rolio's  Philosophy — Air. 
Hollo's  Philosophy — Fire. 
Rolio's  Philosophy— Sky. 


A    NEW    EDITION,    REVISED    BY    THE    AUTHOR. 


PHILADELPHIA : 
PUBLISHED  BY  HOGAN  &  THOMPSON. 


BOSTON: 
GOULD,  KENDALL  &  LINCOLN. 

1850. 


Entered  according  to  the  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1850,  by 

Hogax  &  Thompson, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania! 


PREFATORY    NOTICE. 


As  the  little  readers  of  "Rollo  at  Work"  and 
%  Rollo  at  Play,"  have  done  the  author  the  honor 
to  manifest  some  interest  in  the  continuation  of  his 
juvenile  hero's  history,  they  are  now  presented 
with  "Rollo  at  School"  and  "Rollo's  Vaca- 
tion." Under  the  guise  of  a  narrative  of  Rollo's 
adventures  in  these  new  situations,  these  little 
books  are  intended  to  exhibit  some  of  the  tempta- 
tions, the  trials,  the  difficulties,  and  the  duties, 
which  all  children  experience  in  circumstances  simi- 
lar. That  the  reader  may  be  profited  as  well  as 
amused  by  the  perusal,  is  the  sincere  wish  of 

^i  The  Author. 

£     Roxbury,  October  18,  1838. 

I 


CONTENTS 


Page. 
Plat, 7 

Moke  Flay, • 28 

A  New  Master, ...47 

The  Jack-o'-lantern, 66 

Julius  again, 87 

Ship-Building, 104 

Dorothy's  Story, ,  123 

Thanny, 143 

The  Seed-Gathering, 164 

Conclusion, 184 


ROLLO'S  VACATION. 


PLAY. 


One  evening  in  October,  Rollo  was  coming 
home  from  school  with  a  large,  heavy  satchel 
of  books  on  his  shoulder.  He  walked  along 
a  little  path  by  the  side  of  the  road. 

"Oh,  how  heavy!"  he  said,  presently; 
"  but  here  is  my  resting-stone." 

So  saying,  he  swung  his  satchel  off  from 
his  shoulder,  and  laid  it  down  upon  a  large 
stone,  or  rather  rock,  by  the  side  of  the  road. 
The  rock  had  a  smooth,  flat  top,  where  he 
used  to  stop  and  rest  sometimes ;  and  so  he 
called  it  his  resting-stone. 

An  old  stone  wall  extended  behind  him, 
along  the  side  of  the  road,  and  beyond  it  was 
,an  orchard.  One  large  tree  spread  its  branches 
over  the  resting-stone.  Rollo  looked  up  and 
wished  that  there  were  some  apples  upon  it ; 
but  they  appeared  to  have  been  all  gathered. 
At  last  he  espied  one  upon  a  topmost  branch, 


8 


which  had  been  overlooked.  It  was  a  large, 
plump,  rosy-cheeked  rogue,  hiding  behind 
some  leaves. 

"Ah,  you  little  hide-and-go-seek,"  said 
Rollo,  "  I  spy  you.  Won't  you  just  please  to 
come  down?" 

So  saying,  Rollo  took  up  a  stick  which  lay 
under  the  tree,  and  threw  it  up.  After  one 
or  two  unsuccessful  trials,  he  hit  the  branch 
upon  which  the  apple  grew,  and  down  it 
came.  It  fell  upon  the  side  of  his  green 
satchel,  which  lay  upon  the  stone,  glanced 
off,  and  rolled  out  into  the  road. 

Rollo  hastened  after  it,  for  there  was  a 
wagon  coming  along,  and  he  was  afraid  it 
would  run  over  his  apple.  He  just  succeeded 
in  catching  up  the  apple,  and  was  retreating 
back  to  his  resting-stone,  when,  behold,  he 
saw  that  it  was  Jonas  in  the  wagon. 

Jonas  reined  up  the  horse  when  he  saw 
Rollo,  and  stopped. 

"Ah,  Jonas,"  said  Rollo,  "I  am  very  glad 
to  see  you  and  your  wagon.  I  am  tired  of 
carrying  this  great  satchel  full  of  books.  It's 
my  slate  that  makes  it  so  heavy." 

So  Rollo  carried  his  satchel  in  one  hand, 
and  his  apple  in  the  other,  to  the  wagon. 

M  Here,"  said  he,  "  how  shall  I  get  it  in?" 


9 

"  Toss  your  apple  in  to  me,  first,"  said  Jo- 
nas, "  and  then  hoist  your  satchel  in  behind. 
But  what  are  you  bringing  home  all  your 
books  for?" 

u  Oh,  we  are  going  to  have  a  vacation," 
said  he,  tossing  up  his  apple  to  Jonas,  and 
then  going  around  behind  the  wagon. 

Rollo  pushed  his  satchel  over  into  the  wa- 
gon, and  then  clambered  up  upon  the  seat 
with  Jonas. 

"Now,  Jonas,"  said  Rollo,  " if  you  will 
only  just  be  so  good  as  to  let  me  drive  a  lit- 
tle." 

Jonas  put  the  reins  and  the  whip  into  his 
hands,  and  Rollo  began  to  chirrup  to  the 
horse. 

"How  long  is  your  vacation  to  be?"  said 
Jonas. 

"A  fortnight,"  said  Rollo;  "  a  whole  fort- 
night.    What  a  good  time  I  shall  have." 

"What  a  bad  time  you  will  have,"  said 
Jonas. 

"  A  bad  time ! "  said  Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Jonas;  "boys  almost  always 
have  bad  times  in  vacations." 

Rollo  laughed  outright  at  this  strange  opi- 
nion ;  but  presently  he  said, 

"When  I  began  to  go  to  school,  you  told 


10 


me  I  should  not  like  school ;  and  now  school 
is  done,  you  tell  me  I  shall  not  like  vacation. 
That  is  a  contradiction." 

"  Not  exactly,"  said  Jonas. 

"/think  it  is." 

"No,"  said  Jonas,  "it  is  true;  boys  are 
discontented,  and  don't  like  anything  long. 
If  you  don't  want  to  go  to  school  again  in 
three  days,  I  am  mistaken." 

So  saying,  he  took  the  reins  out  of  Rollo's 
hands  and  drove  into  the  yard.  Hollo  got 
out  and  went  in  with  his  books.  He  carried 
them  at  once  up  into  his  room,  took  the  books 
out  of  his  satchel,  and  arranged  them  neatly 
upon  his  shelves.  Then  he  hung  the  satchel 
up  upon  a  nail  in  the  back  entry,  where  he 
usually  kept  it,  and  then  he  came  down  again 
into  the  yard. 

Supper  was  not  quite  ready,  and  he  ac- 
cordingly sat  down  upon  the  back  piazza,  and 
began  to  think  what  he  should  do  the  next 
day. 

"  I  can  play  here  in  the  yard,"  thought  he 
to  himself;  "  or  I  can  go  with  Jonas  wher- 
ever he  goes ;  or  I  can  make  me  a  garden,  or 
I  can  sail  little  boats  at  the  trough  at  the 
pump,  or  I  can " 


11 


He  was  interrupted  here  by  his  mother's 
voice,  calling, 

«  Rollo." 

"What,  mother?"  said  Rollo. 

Rollo  looked  up  as  he  said  this,  and  saw 
his  mother  at  the  window  of  her  chamber. 

"What  are  you  thinking  about  so  intent- 
ly, Rollo?" 

"Why,  mother,"  said  he,  "I  was  thinking 
about  my  vacation.  I  was  considering  what 
I  should  do  to-morrow.  What  would  you  do, 
mother?" 

"I  should  read  or  study  part  of  the  time," 
said  his  mother. 

"Read  and  study,  mother!"  said  he,  with 
surprise.     "  Why,  it  is  my  vacation." 

Rollo  had  never  had  a  vacation  until  now. 
Before  he  went  to  school,  he  had  always  been 
accustomed  to  have  lessons  of  some  sort  every 
day ;  so  he  had  never  yet  learned  how  wea- 
risome and  tedious  it  is  to  have  nothing  to 
do  but  play  all  day  long.  Now  that  he  had 
been  at  school,  and  had  arrived  at  an  actual 
vacation,  he  supposed,  of  course,  that  he  was 
to  have  nothing  to  do  with  books.  He  thought 
he  was  going  to  play  all  day  long,  every  day, 
for  a  fortnight,  and  expected  to  feel  as  much 
pleasure  every  half  hour  of  the  whole  time, 


12 


as  he  had  done  usually  for  the  half  hour  he 
generally  had  for  play  after  school  at  night. 

But  the  truth  is,  that  the  high  degree  of 
pleasure  which  most  boys  feel  when  engaged 
in  play  in  recess,  or  after  school,  and  on 
Wednesday  and  Saturday  afternoons,  is  ow- 
ing to  the  fact  that  they  have  been  confined 
so  long  at  their  studies  before.  This  is  what 
gives  them  that  life  and  joyousness  which 
makes  the  hours  of  play  pass  so  pleasantly. 
Playing  all  day,  for  many  days  in  succession, 
usually  becomes  very  hard  and  tiresome  work. 
But  Rollo  did  not  know  it  yet. 

Now  the  reason  why  Rollo' s  mother  would 
have  had  some  little  reading  or  study  every 
day,  was  partly  because  she  would  wish  to 
make  some  mental  improvement  every  day, 
even  in  vacation,  and  partly  because  she 
knew  that  this  was  the  only  way  to  give  life 
and  interest  to  hours  of  play. 

Rollo  did  not  say  anything  in  reply  to  this 
proposal  of  his  mother.  He  was  silent.  He 
did  not  like  to  say  that  he  was  unwilling  to 
study,  hut  still  it  was  true  that  he  did  not 
wish  to  have  anything  to  do  with  his  books 
during  the  vacation. 

After  a  pause,  however,  he  said. 


13 

"  Oh,  but,  mother,  I  meant  what  would  you 
play." 

"  Why, — I  don't  know,"  said  she  slowly. 
"I  would  work  with  Jonas  a  part  of  the 
time." 

"  But,  mother,"  said  Rollo,  laughing,  "that 
is  not  play;" 

"  Oh.  you  might  let  it  go  for  play." 
."No,  I  want  some  real  play." 

His  mother  could  not  help  him  any.  She 
could  not  think  of  any  plays  that  would  last 
every  day  for  a  fortnight,  and  all  day  too, 
without  becoming  very  tiresome. 

At  last  supper-time  came,  and  after  suppei 
bed-time,  and  Rollo  went  to  bed. 

The  next  morning,  after  breakfast,  Rollo 
came  out  into  the  yard,  with  a  jump  and  a 
caper,  saying, 

"  Oh,  how  glad  I  am  that  I  am  not  going 
to  school  to-day." 

Do  you  think  Rollo  was  wrong  for  saying 
so?  I  do  not.  When  children  never  like 
school,  and  make  complaints  when  they  have 
to  go,  it  is  a  very  bad  sign.  But  when  a  boy 
has  been  at  school  a  long  time,  and  has  been 
industrious  and  faithful,  he  generally  gets 
tired  and  needs  a  little  vacation.  We  cannot 
2 


14 


blame  him  for  enjoying  it.  The  only  mistake 
that  Rollo  made,  was  in  supposing  that  his 
vacation  would  be  pleasant,  if  he  spent  the 
whole  of  it  in  doing  nothing  but  play. 

Rollo  went  out  into  the  garden,  and  he 
found  some  ripe  flower-seeds,  and  he  con- 
cluded to  gather  them.  He  pulled  off  several 
poppy  heads,  and  began  to  shake  out  the 
seeds  into  his  hands.  He  called  them  his 
sand-boxes.  He  wished  he  had  some  paper 
to  sprinkle  his  sand  upon,  and  to  wrap  it  up 
in ;  but  it  did  not  come  by  wishing,  and  at 
length  he  was  just  upon  the  point  of  throwing 
his  sand  away,  when  he  saw  some  large 
leaves  growing  upon  a  grape-vine,  and  he 
thought  they  would  make  good  paper. 

He  gathered  some  leaves,  poured  his  poppy 
seeds  into  one,  folded  them  up,  and  put  them 
in  his  pocket.  This  amused  him  for  a  few 
minutes,  but  presently  he  got  tired  of  the  gar- 
den and  came  back  into  the  yard.  Jonas  was 
there,  harnessing  the  horse  into  the  wagon. 

"  Hallo,  Jonas,"  said  he.  "  Where  are  you 
going?" 

"  Oh,  I  am  going  somewhere, "  said  Jonas. 

"  May  I  go  too?"  said  Rollo. 

'Will  you?"  said  Jonas. 

"Yes.    Where  is  it?" 


15 

{ You  promise  to  go,  do  you?"  said  Jonas, 
who,  by  this  time^had  clambered  up  to  the 
side  of  the  wagon/^and  seemed  to  be  taking 
out  the  seat. 

"  Why,  where  are  you  going?"  said  Rollo, 
with  great  curiosity. 

By  this  time  Jonas  had  taken  the  seat  out, 
and  was  putting  it  down  upon  the  ground. 

H  I  am  going  to  dig  potatoes.  I  wish  you 
would  go  too,  and  help  me  pick  them  up." 

"Oh,"  said  Rollo,  looking  rather  disap- 
pointed, "I  did  not  know  you  were  going  to 
dig  potatoes.  However,  I  believe  I  will  go 
into  the  field  with  you." 

So  saying,  Rollo  clambered  into  the  wagon 
and  took  his  seat,  with  Jonas,  upon  a  board 
which  he  had  placed  across  the  wagon. 
Thus  they  rode  off  to  the  field. 

Jonas  tried  to  persuade  Rollo  to  help  him 
pick  up  potatoes,  and  he  did,  in  fact,  pick  up 
one  small  basket  full.  But  at  length  he  said 
he  could  not  pick  up  potatoes  in  his  vacation, 
and  slowly  sauntered  back  to  the  house. 

He  walked  about  the  yard  a  few  minutes, 
not  knowing  exactly  what  to  do.  Before  he 
began  to  go  to  school,  that  is,  when  he,  was 
quite  a  little  boy,  he  could  amuse  himself  a 
long  time  digging  in  the  ground  with  a  stick, 


16  ROLLO'S   VACATION. 

or  piling  up  little  stones,  or  making  mounds 
in  the  sand.  But  now  he  was  older,  and  had 
much  higher  ideas,  and  these  babyish  amuse- 
ments were  far  beneath  him. 

He  went  to  the  front  gate  and  looked  out 
into  the  street.  There  were  some  willow 
trees  across  the  road. 

"Ah,"  said  he,  " I  know  what  I  will  do. 
I'll  make  a  whistle." 

He  went  over  and  cut  a  good-sized  shoot 
from  the  tree,  and,  carrying  it  back  to  the 
yard,  he  sat  down  upon  the  step  of  the  door 
and  began  to  make  a  whistle.  This  was  an 
amusement  which  the  boys  used  to  enjoy  very 
much  in  the  recesses,  sitting  together  under 
the  trees  of  the  orchard;  but  somehow  or 
other  Rollo  did  not  find  much  pleasure  in  it 
now.  He  finished  his  whistle  and  blew  it. 
It  sounded  very  well.  He  got  up  and  march- 
ed about  the  yard,  blowing  it.  It  sounded 
very  well,  but  somehow  or  other  he  did  not 
care  much  about  hearing  it.  He  slipped  the 
bark  off  and  looked  to  see  if  he  had  made  it 
right.  It  looked  smooth  and  regular,  and  he 
did  not  see  that  it  needed  any  alteration.  He 
blew"  it  once  more,  and  then  put  it  in  his 
pocket. 

" Oh  hum,"  said  he.     "I  think  it  must  be 


17 


time  for  me  to  have  some  luncheon.    I'll  go 
in." 

So  he  went  into  the  house  to  ask  his  mo- 
ther for  some  luncheon.  She  was  sitting  at 
her  work-table,  sewing. 

"  Mother,"  said  Rollo,  "isn't  it  almost  ele- 
ven o'clock?" 

"  Oh  no,"  said  she;  "it  is  not  quite  ten 
yet." 

"  Why,  mother ! "  said  Rollo.  "  I  thought 
it  was  as  much  as  eleven." 

"  No,"  said  she;  "but  that  seems  as  if  time 
hangs  heavy  with  you.  I  am  afraid  you 
don't  enjoy  your  vacation  very  well." 

"Why, — yes — ,"  said  Rollo,  hesitating. 
"  But,  mother,  I  have  not  got  anybody  to  play 
with.  If  I  only  had  somebody  to  play  with, 
I  should  have  a  capital  time.  I  wish  you 
would  let  me  go  and  get  Henry  to  come." 

"  Perhaps  his  father  could  not  spare  him." 

"  Well,  then,  if  you  would  let  me  stay  and 
play  with  him — Here,  kitty,"  said  he,  taking 
a  ball  of  yarn  off  of  his  mother's  table,  and 
rolling  it  along  the  floor.     "Run,  kitty,  run." 

The  kitten  jumped  up,  looked  a  moment 

at  the  ball,  and  then  darted  after  it.     Rollo 

watched  her  movements  for  some  time,  as  she 

pursued  the  ball  under  the  chairs  and  tables. 

a*  2* 


18 


"Mother,"  said  Rollo,  "do  you  suppose 
the  kitten  thinks  that  that  is  a  mouse — a 
kind  of  a  round,  rolling  mouse?" 

"I  don't  know,"  said  his  mother.  "It  is 
difficult  to  tell  what  kittens  think." 

By  and  by  the  kitten  got  tired  of  playing 
with  the  ball,  and  came  back  and  laid  down 
again  by  the  work-tabie,  and  went  to  sleep. 

"  Mother,  do  you  think  you  could  let  me 
go  and  see  Henry?" 

"  Yes,  you  may  go  after  dinner  if  you  wish. 
I  think  you  had  better  not  go  this  morning." 

"Well,"  said  Rollo;  "I  will  go  this  after- 
noon, immediately  after  dinner,  and  we  shall 
have  a  capital  time." 

So  Rollo  rose  and  sauntered  along  to  the 
door.  When  he  was  out  in  the  entry  his 
mother  called  him  back. 

"What,  mother?"  said  he,  returning. 

"  There  is  an  old  proverb,  Rollo,  that  idlers 
are  always  full  of  mischief." 

Rollo  looked  at  his  mother — he  did  not 
know  what  she  meant.  "What,  mother?" 
said  he. 

"  That's  an  old  proverb,  and  you  have  just 
been  verifying  it." 

"Verifying  it!"  said  Rollo;  "what  does 
that  mean?" 


19 

"  Proving  that  it  is  true." 
•    "Why,  mother,  have  I   been  doing  any 
mischief?" 

"  Yes,"  said  she.  "  I  was  quietly  at  work, 
and  you  came  in  and  have  taken  away  my 
ball ;  and  now  you  are  going  away  without 
even  thinking  of  bringing  it  back." 

Rollo  began  to  look  under  the  chairs  and 
tables  after  the  ball,  but  he  could  not  find  it. 

"  Pussy,"  said  he,  "  what  have  you  done 
With  that  ball?" 

But  pussy  made  no  answer,  and  Rollo  con- 
tinued looking  in  vain.  He  lounged  along 
carelessly,  looking  under  the  furniture  and 
in  the  corners,  but  did  not  see  it.  Presently 
he  said  that  perhaps  it  had  gone  out  into  the 
entry,  and  he  went  out  there.  A  few  minutes 
afterwards,  his  mother,  perceiving  that  he 
was  still,  called  out, 

"  Rollo." 

"What,  mother?"  said  Rollo. 

"What  are  you  doing?" 

"  Oh,  I  am  sitting  here  on  the  steps.' 
|     "  But  I  want  my  ball." 

"Well,  but,  mother,  I  can't  find  it  any- 
where." 

"Ah,  Rollo,  I  am  afraid  that  vacation  is 
not  likely  to  do  you  much  good." 


20 

1  Why,  mother,  I  have  looked  for  the  ball, 
and  what  more  can  I  do?" 

"But  looking  for  it  is  not  enough;  you 
ought  to  find  it." 

"But  I  can't  find  it." 

"  Come  in  here." 

So  Rollo  got  up  and  came  in  to  his  mother. 

"  You  have  done  very  wrong,  Rollo,"  said 
she.  "You  came  and  took  away  a  part  of 
my  work,  without  leave,  to  play  with.  That 
was  not  right,  though  I  admit  that  it  was  not 
very  wrong ;  but  then,  when  you  had  taken 
it,  you  ought,  certainly,  to  have  brought  it 
back.  But  that  you  did  not  think  of  doing. 
Then,  when  I  reminded  you  of  it,  you  pretend- 
ed to  look,  but  you  did  not  look  thoroughly 
or  carefully;  you  lounged  about  as  if  you 
cared  very  little  whether  you  found  it  or  not. 
Then  very  soon  you  gave  up,  and  went  and 
sat  down  upon  the  steps;  and  now  you  don't 
seem  to  feel  as  if  you  had  any  responsibility 
about  the  business  at  all." 

Rollo  hung  his  head  and  looked  somewhat 
ashamed. 

"  Now,"  continued  his  mother,  "  you  must 
go  and  look  for  the  ball  until  you  find  it." 

"Suppose  I  can't  find  if?" 


21 

"  Then  you  must  not  go  out  of  the  room 
till  dinner-time." 

Rollo  then  "began  again  to  look  around  the 
room.  He  said  he  was  sure  that  the  ball 
was  not  in  the  room.  His  mother  told  him 
that  he  had  no  reason  to  be  sure,  as  it  was 
altogether  more  probable  that  it  was  in  the 
room. 

A  minute  or  two  afterwards,  Rollo  found 
the  ball  near  the  leg  of  the  table.  He  pounced 
upon  it  at  once,  and  brought  it  to  his  mother. 

"Now,"  said  he,  "1  may  go,  I  suppose." 

"  Why,  yes,"  said  his  mother ;  "you  are  no 
longer  forbidden  to  go.  But  consider  a  mo- 
ment. You  have  given  me,  by  this,  consi- 
derable unnecessary  trouble.  Now  whenever 
we  do  anybody  any  injury,  we  ought  to  make 
them  amends  for  it." 

"  Restitution,"  said  Rollo. 

"Yes,  restitution;  but  who  told  you?" 

"  Miss  Mary,"  said  Rollo.  "  She  said  that 
when  we  did  anybody  any  injury  we  must 
always  make  restitution." 

"  That  is  excellent  advice.  Now  here  is  a 
case.  You  have  interrupted  and  troubled  me 
in  my  work,  and  now  you  might  sit  down 
and  help  me  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  and 
that  would  make  amends.     But  you  can  do 


22 

just  as  you  please  about  it.  If  you  prefer  it, 
you  can  go  out  to  play." 

Rollo  hesitated.  Presently ,  he  asked  his 
mother  what  she  should  want  him  to  do,  if  he 
should  conclude  to  help  her. 

"I  think  I  should  set  you  to  picking  out 
the  threads  in  this  cloth." 

His  mother  had  a  piece  of  cloth  which  she 
had  been  ripping  apart,  and  the  edges  of  it 
were  full  of  little  threads.  Rollo  looked  at  it, 
but  he  thought  it  would  be  dull  work  to  pick 
out  those  threads  for  a  whole  quarter  of  an 
hour,  and  in  his  vacation  too. 

"Do  you  think  I  had  better  do  it?"  said 
he. 

"  Yes,  I  do,"  said  his  mother. 

"Why?" 

"  There  are  two  good  reasons.  First,  it  is 
just  that  you  should  ;  and  next,  it  will  teach 
you  to  be  careful,  and  not  do  mischief  to 
others,  if,  whenever  you  do  any  mischief,  you 
always  stop  to  repair  it." 

While  his  mother  was  saying  this,  Rollo 
stood  in  a  hesitating  attitude,  holding  the 
cloth  in  his  hands,  and  now  and  then  picking 
out  a  thread.  He  was  quite  uncertain  what 
to  do. 

"  Mother,"  said  he,  presently,  "  I  wanted 


23 

to  go  and  get  a  luncheon  now.  I  feel  quite 
hungry." 

"  Very  well,"  said  his  mother.  {:  You  can 
go,  you  know.  I  did  not  say  you  must  stay 
and  help  me." 

Rollo  did  not  like  to  go,  and  he  did  not  like 
to  stay.  Finally,  however,  his  sense  of  jus- 
tice prevailed,  and  he  sat  down  upon  a  cricket 
and  began  to  work  industriously,  picking  out 
the  threads. 

He  expected  that  the  quarter  of  an  hour 
would  have  appeared  very  long;  but,  instead 
of  that,  it  slipped  away  very  fast.  He  talked 
with  his  mother  about  various  things.  She 
advised  him  to  gather  the  flower-seeds  in  his 
garden  during  the  vacation;  and  told  him 
that  the  best  way  would  be,  to  make,  first,  a 
number  of  small  paper  bags,  and  then,  as  fast 
as  he  should  gather  the  seeds,  put  them  into 
the  bags,  tie  them  up,  and  label  them. 

While  they  were  talking  in  this  way,  the 
time  passed,  and  indeed,  it  passed  quite  plea- 
santly. Rollo  enjoyed  that  fifteen  minutes 
more,  in  fact,  than  he  had  enjoyed  any  fifteen 
minutes  during  the  day. 

At  last  his  mother  looked  up  at  the  clock, 
and  told  him  that  he  had  finished  his  task. 

"You  were  to  work  fifteen  minutes,"  said 


24 

she,  "  and  it  is  now  more  than  fifteen  minutes 
already." 

Rollo  said  he  believed  he  would  finish  the 
piece  he  had  in  his  hand ;  and  while  he  was 
doing  it,  he  asked  his  mother  how  he  could 
make  his  paper  bags. 

"  You  must  take  two  or  three  cents  and  go 
and  buy  some  powdered  gum-arabic.  They 
will  give  it  to  you  in  a  little  paper.  It  looks 
like  flour.  Then  mix  about  a  teaspoonful  of 
this  with  a  little  hot  water,  and  it  will  make 
a  kind  of  paste.  Then  cut  out  your  pieces 
of  paper,  and  paste  the  edges  over  so  as  to 
make  a  bag." 

Rollo  did  not  understand  exactly  how  the 
cutting  out  was  to  be  done,  but  he  determined 
to  do  it  some  day,  and  then  he  went  off  to 
get  his  luncheon. 

For  about  ten.  minutes,  while  he  was  eat- 
ing his  luncheon,  he  was  quite  contented  and 
happy.  This  was  partly  owing  to  the  lun- 
cheon, and  partly  to  the  fact  that  he  had 
been  usefully  employed  for  some  time  before. 
The  release  from  the  confinement  to  his  work 
on  the  cricket,  operated  in  the  same  way  as 
release  from  the  confinement  of  school  does 
in  making  boys  happy  in  recess.     But  after  a 


25 


short  time  he  was  again  at  a  loss  to  know 
what  to  do. 

Lounging  about  the  yard,  he  at  length 
found  a  small  shining  stone.  Most  of  the  rocks 
in  the  part  of  the  country  where  he  lived 
had  in  them  little  shining  plates  of  a  mineral 
which  the  philosophers  call  mica;  but  Rollo 
did  not  know  it,  or  at  least  he  had  not  often 
noticed  it,  and  now  he  was  very  much  struck 
with  the  shining  surfaces  of  his  little  gray 
stone.  He  carried  it  in  to  his  mother  and 
showed  it  to  her.  She  said  it  was  quite  pret- 
ty, and  told  him  the  name  of  the  little  shining 
plates.  Rollo  considered  it  a  great  prize,  and 
carried  it  about  in  his  hand3  showing  it  to 
every  body. 

At  length  he  thought  he  would  carry  it  to 
Jonas  in  the  field;  and  he  accordingly  walked 
along  slowly,  looking  at  various  things  by 
the  way.  Before  he  got  there,  however,  he 
began  to  be  tired  of  his  stone,  and  had  a  great 
mind  to  throw  it  away ;  but  he  concluded, 
on  the  whole,  that  he  would  give  it  to  Jonas. 

"Jonas,"  said  he,  coming  to  the  place 
where  Jonas  was  at  work,  and  holding  the 
stone  out  to  him,  "  see  there." 

"What  is  it?"   said  Jonas,  looking  up. 
"It  is  a  stone,  isn't  it?" 
b  3 


26 


"  Yes,"  said  he.     "  Isn't  it  pretty  V* 

"It  is  rather  pretty,"  said  Jonas,  pulling 
up  the  tops  of  another  hill  of  potatoes." 

"Do  you  want  it?"  said  Rollo. 

"Why,  no,"  said  Jonas;  "I  believe  not." 

"  Don't  you  want  it ?"  said  Rollo.  "Isn't 
it  good  for  anything?" 

"  Yes ;  but  I  should  want  more  than  one, 
if  I  had  any." 

"  How  many  should  you  want?" 

"  I  should  want  about  twenty  cart-loads." 

"Twenty  cart-loads!"  said  Rollo,  in  great 
astonishment;  "what  should  you  do  with 
them?" 

"  I  should  spread  them  along  on  the  road. 
They  would  make  a  beautiful  gray  road." 

Rollo  stood  looking  at  his  stone  for  a 
minute  or  two  in  silence,  and  then  threw  it 
away.  Jonas  proposed  to  him  again  that  he 
should  help  him  pick  up  his  potatoes;  and 
Rollo  did,  for  a  few  minutes,  but  pretty  soon 
got  tired,  and  concluded,  on  the  whole,  to  go 
back  to  the  house. 

Before  he  went,  however,  Jonas  asked  him 
how  he  liked  vacation. 

"  Oh,  very  well,"  said  Rollo. 

But  Jonas  observed  that  he  did  not  speak 
very  enthusiastically,  and  said,  in  reply, 


27 

"  i  am  afraid  you  have  not  had  a  very  good 
time  this  forenoon." 

"Why,  I  have  not  had  anybody  to  play 
with,"  said  Rollo;  "  that  is  the  difficulty." 

"  I  rather  think  not,"  said  Jonas. 

"What  is  the  difficult. ,  then?"  said  Rollo. 

"  The  difficulty  is.  that  you  have  grown 
too  old." 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  that?"  said  Rollo. 

"  Why,  that  you  have  grown  too  old  to  be 
happy  with  nothing  to  do." 

Rollo  did  not  answer.  He  was  thinking 
of  what  Jonas  said. 

"  When  you  were  a  little  boy,"  continued 
Jonas,  "you  could  play  about  the  yard  all 
day  long,  without  doing  anything  at  all ;  but 
you  are  too  big  now." 

Rollo  then  walked  along  home,  and  after 
waiting  a  half  an  hour  longer  dinner-time 
came.  He  started  up  joyfully  when  he  heard 
the  bell  ring,  and  ran  in,  saying, 

"Now,  pretty  soon,  I  shall  go  and  see 
Henry." 


MORE  PLAY. 

After  dinner,  Rollo  set  off,  his  mother 
having  renewed  her  permission  that  he  should 
go  and  spend  the  afternoon  with  Henry.  He 
took  with  him  his  whip.  This  whip  was  one 
which  he  liked  to  have  with  him  very  much. 
Jonas  made  the  handle  out  of  an  oak  stick 
which  he  got  from  the  woodpile.  He  split 
out  a  slender  strip  with  the  axe,  and  then 
shaved  it  down  with  his  knife,  until  it  was 
of  the  right  size  at  one  end  to  be  held  in  the 
hand,  and  it  tapered  off  long  and  slender  to- 
wards the  other  end. 

As  for  the  lash,  Rollo  bought  it  at  a  store 
for  a  shilling,  and  Jonas  fastened  it  on  very 
strong.  He  also  made  an  excellent  long  snap- 
per at  the  end  of  the  lash.  This  is  the  best 
way  for  a  boy  to  get  a  whip,  for  this  process 
gives  a  good  strong  one.  The  whips  that 
boys  buf  at  a  toy-shop  are  very  frail.  They 
are  made  chiefly  to  look  pretty,  but  are  not 
very  good  to  use.  The  lash  almost  always 
comes  off  if  you  whip  hard,  and  then  the 
handle  breaks  to  pieces.     Rollo' s  oaken  han- 


29 

die  lasted  for  many  years.  It  was  handsome 
also,  for  Jonas  dyed  it  blue. 

Rollo  walked  along  cracking  his  whip,  and 
singing  "  Buy  a  Broom.'7  When  he  came  to 
his  resting-stone  he  sat  down  a  few  minutes 
to  rest,  and  he  looked  up  into  the  apple-tree 
to  see  if  he  could  see  any  more  apples,  but  he 
could  not.  He  then  concluded  that,  instead 
of  going  round  by  the  road,  he  would  go  by 
a  shorter  way  across  the  fields. 

So  he  climbed  over  the  fence  into  the  or- 
chard, and  walked  along  under  the  trees. 
From  the  orchard  he  went  into  a  pasture.  A 
path  in  the  pasture  led  him  down  a  long  de- 
scent, and  finally  into  a  wood,  where  the 
path  was  lost  among  the  trees.  However, 
Rollo  worked  his  way  along,  until  at  length 
his  farther  progress  was  stopped  by  a  brook. 

"Why!"  said  Rollo,  surprised,  "how 
much  water  there  is  in  the  brook!" 

Rollo  had  been  at  this  brook  several  times 
in  the  course  of  the  summer,  and  had  observ- 
ed that  there  was  but  little  water  in  it,  so 
that  he  could  jump  across  almost  anywhere. 
But  now  there  was  a  great  deal  more  water 
in  the  brook,  and  Rollo  began  to  be  afraid 
that  he  should  not  get  over. 

The  truth  is,  that  brooks  have  very  difier- 
3* 


30 


ent  quantities  of  water  in  them  at  different 
seasons  of  the  year.  The  reason  is,  that  there 
is  much  more  rain  at  some  seasons  than  at 
others,  and  the  rain  runs  down  the  sides  of 
the  hills  and  fills  up  the  brooks.  This  is  par- 
ticularly true  in  the  spring  and  fall.  Some 
of  the  autumnal  rains  had  fallen  about  a 
week  before  Rollo's  vacation,  and  it  was  in 
consequence  of  this  that  there  was  so  much 
water  in  the  brook. 

Rollo  at  last  found  a  place  to  get  over,  and 
then  went  on.  Presently  he  came  in  sight  of 
the  martin-house,  on  the  top  of  its  high  pole ; 
then  the  chimneys,  and  finally  the  house  it- 
self, with  the  yards  and  out-houses,  came  into 
view.  At  length  he  espied  Henry,  perched 
upon  the  top  of  a  low  shed,  between  two 
great  barns. 

Rollo  ran  along,  shouting,  "  Henry,  Hen- 
ry;" and  Henry,  when  he  saw  him,  called 
him  to  come  up  where  he  was.  Rollo  had  a 
little  doubt  whether  he  ought  to  climb  up  to 
such  a  place ;  but  finally  he  concluded  to  do 
it,  and  was  just  clambering  up,  Henry  pulling 
him  by  the  hand  from  above,  when  Henry's 
mother  came  to  the  door,  and  in  a  loud  and 
stern  voice  called  to  them  to  come  down. 
She  rebuked  Henry  for  climbing  up  in  that 


31 

way,  told  him  it  was  dangerous,  and  that  he 
knew  better. 

Rollo  felt  a  little  ashamed  at  this  mortify- 
ing circumstance,  but  the  boys  soon  forgot  it, 
and  Henry  began  to  look  at  Rollo' s  whip. 
He  examined  the  handle  and  the  lash,  and 
snapped  it,  and  finally  he  wanted  Rollo  to  be 
his  horse.  So  he  got  a  long  piece  of  list  for 
reins,  and  putting  a  part  in  Rollo' s  mouth  for 
bits,  began  to  drive  him  about. 

At  length  Rollo  stopped  and  took  the  list 
out  of  his  mouth. 

"Henry,"  said  he,  "I  don't  like  such 
Woolly- tasting  bits.  Can't  you  tie  it  around 
my  arms?" 

"But  then  I  can't  steer  you." 

"Oh  yes,"  said  Rollo;  '-'you  can  put  one 
end  around  one  arm,  and  the  other  around 
the  other,  and  then  you  can  steer  me." 

"Well, — only  you  must  turn  whichever 
way  I  pull." 

"  I  will,"  said  Rollo. 

So  Henry  rigged  his  harness  upon  Rollo's 
shoulders,  and  off  the"  set  again,  racing  up 
and  down  the  yard,  presently  Henry  drove 
his  horse  towards  the  door.  Rollo  turned  this 
way  and  that,  to  avoid  going  into  the  house, 


32  ROLLO's    VACATION. 

but  Henry  stopped  him  on  each  side,  and 
whipped  him  to  make  him  go  on. 

Rollo  was  unwilling  to  go,  but  remem- 
bering his  promise  to  go  wherever  Henry 
should  steer  him,  he  went  in.  There  was 
nobody  there.  They  trotted  on,  horse  and 
rider,  until  they  came  to  the  parlor,  then, 
through  that,  out  at  the  front  door,  and 
thence  around  the  house  to  the  kitchen  again. 
Thus  they  went  the  circuit,  racing  through 
the  house  faster  and  faster  every  time,  and 
leaving  all  the  doors  open,  of  course. 

Henry's  mother  was  up  stairs,  and  hearing 
all  this  noise,  she  came  down  to  see  what 
was  the  matter. 

"Oh,  boys,  boys,"  said  she,  "what  are 
you  doing  ?  Henry,  bring  me  your  whip  and 
reins,  and  go  and  shut  all  the  doors,  and  then 
come  and  sit  down  there,  till  I  tell  you  you 
may  get  up.  That  is  the  way  in  vacation, 
always  getting  into  mischief  and  giving  me 
trouble." 

So  saying,  she  pointed  to  a  place  in  the 
corner  of  the  room,  where  Henry  went  and 
sat  down.  Rollo  gathered  up  the  reins  and 
walked  out,  a  good  deal  ashamed. 

Rollo  waited  at  the  door  several  minutes, 
but  Henry  did  not  come  out.    Presently  he 


ROLLO'S   VACATION.  33 

heard  a  noise  of  shouting  down  a  valley 
among  some  trees  behind  the  house.  He  lis- 
tened. It  sounded  as  if  somebody  was  driv- 
ing some  oxen  there.  Presently  he  saw  the 
heads  of  men  and  of  oxen  over  the  fence, 
moving  slowly  along. 

"Oh,"  said  he  to  himself,  "I  wish  Henry 
could  come  out.  They're  bringing  a  load  of 
apples,  I  know." 

He  went  back  into  the  kitchen  to  see  why 
Henry  did  not  come.  His  mother  was  in  the 
parlor,  and  Rollo  went  in  to  see  if  he  could 
not  get  Henry  pardoned. 

"Will  you  please  to  let  Henry  come  out 
now ? "  said  he.  "We  will  be  careful  and  not 
trouble  you  any  more." 

Rollo  spoke  in  a  gentle  and  respectful  man- 
ner, which  made  a  very  favorable  impression 
upon  Henry's  mother.  She  looked  up  at  him 
pleasantly  and  said, 

"  I  should  like  to  let  him  go  out  and  play, 
but  do  you  suppose  I  can  have  horses  racing 
through  my  parlor?" 

"  Why,  no,"  said  Rollo.  "  We  did  wrong, 
but  we  will  not  do  so  any  more." 

Rollo,  by  thus  frankly  confessing  the  fault, 
Hot  only  did  what  was  right  in  itself,  but  also 
what  was  most  likely  to  obtain  his  object, 


34 


That  is,  leave  for  Henry  to  go  out.  Boys 
generally  think  that  making  excuses,  or  lay- 
ing the  blame  upon  some  one  else,  is  the  best 
way  in  such  cases ;  but  it  is  really  the  very 
worst  way. 

In  fact,  there  are  a  great  many  boys  who 
would  have  gone  to  making  excuses  in  such  a 
case  as  this.  They  would  have  said  that  they 
did  not  do  any  harm,  that  they  did  not  make 
much  noise,  or  something  else  in  excuse ;  or 
perhaps  they  would  have  put  the  blame  upon 
Henry.  In  fact,  Rollo  might  have  said  that 
he  did  not  want  to  go  through  the  house,  but 
Henry  drove  him.  But  he  was  not  so  unge- 
nerous as  to  wish  to  throw  the  fault  all  upon 
his  playmate.  As  he  had  joined  with  him  in 
the  game,  he  was  willing  to  share  in  the  un- 
pleasant consequences. 

Here  Henry  called  out  from  the  kitchen, 

"  Mother,  I  don't  think  that  Rollo  was  to 
blame  at  all,  for  he  tried  not  to  come  in,  but  I 
drove  him." 

"Very  well,"  she  replied,  -"I  will  forgive 
you  now,  and  you  may  go;  but  don't  make 
me  any  more  trouble." 

The  boys  went  out,  and  Rollo  proposed 
that  they  should  go  and  see  that  load  of  ap- 
ples.    The  cart  had  by  this  time  come  into 


35 

the  yard,  and  was  standing  near  the  barn, 
and  one  of  the  men  was  opening  the  great 
doors. 

Henry  said  he  did  not  believe  it  was  a  load 
of  apples,  but  they  went  to  see. 

They  found  that  instead  of  apples  it  was  a 
load  of  corn,  in  the  husks;  and  Rollo  and 
Henry  obtained  permission  to  climb  up  into 
the  cart  and  help  throw  the  ears  off.  They 
enjoyed  themselves  a  good  deal  while  doing 
this,  chiefly  from  the  idea  that  they  were  do- 
ing some  good ;  though,  in  fact,  they  were  not 
doing  any  good,  for  they  were  somewhat  in 
the  way  of  the  men,  so  as  to  retard  their 
work,  to  the  full  amount  of  all  they  did  them- 
selves. The  cart  was  not  unloaded  probably 
any  sooner  for  their  help.  Still,  they  imagined 
that  they  were  doing  something;  and  there  is 
such  a  charm  in  useful  employment,  that 
even  the  idea,  though  delusive,  is  a  great 
source  of  pleasure. 

When  the  cart  was  unloaded  the  boys  asked 
leave  to  ride  back  in  it  to  the  field.  Henry's 
father  gave  them  leave.  The  oxen  were 
backed,  and  then  turned  round,  and  in  a  few 
minutes  they  were  moving  along  slowly  out 
of  the  yard,  Rollo  and  Henry  standing  up  in 
the  middle  of  the  cart,  and  holding  on  to  each 


3G  hollo's  vacation. 

other,  and  endeavoring  to  quicken  the  slow 
steps  of  the  oxen  by  shouting,  "  Ha'  Bright," 
"  Ha'  Golden." 

They  passed  along  a  green  lane.  Presently 
Henry  suddenly  called  to  Rollo  to  look  at  a 
tall  tree  in  the  woods,  down  in  the  valley. 

"See  that  tree,"  said  he;  "that  is  where 
the  hornets'  nest  was." 

"Is  it?"  said  Rollo.  "Let  us  go  and  see 
it." 

" Oh  no,"  said  Henry ;  "let  us  go  into  the 
cornfield  and  help  get  another  load  of  corn." 

But  Rollo  wanted  to  go  into  the  woods. 
He  should  like  to  see  the  place  where  the 
hornets'  nest  was,  and,  besides,  he  wanted  to 
play  in  the  water  a  little,  by  the  bridge. 
They  discussed  the  matter  some  time,  and 
finally  Henry  yielded;  .and  they  both  jumped 
out  behind  the  cart  and  made  their  way  to- 
wards the  woods. 

Some  tall  weeds  were  growing  by  the  side 
of  the  lane,  or  rather  had  been  growing,  for 
they  had  long  since  ripened,  and  nothing  re- 
mained now  but  tall  stalks,  white  and  dry. 
Rollo  proposed  taking  one  or  two  of  them  for 
"pushers"  to  push  the  little  chips  about  with, 
which  were  to  serve  for  boats.  So  they 
gathered  two  tall  ones  apiece,  and  pulled  off 


ROLLO'S   VACATION.  37 

the  branches  and  broke  off  the  tops,  and  then 
clambered  over  the  fence  and  walked  along 
the  pastures,  with  their  light  and  slendei 
"pushers"  in  their  hands. 

They  at  length  entered  the  woods  by  the 
pasture  path,  and  presently  came  down  to  the 
brook  and  the  bridge.  Rollo  was  so  much  in- 
terested in  trying  his  "pusher,"  that  he  forgot 
all  about  the  hornets'  nest,  but  immediately 
began  to  look  about  for  sticks  and  pieces  of 
bark  to  use  for  boats. 

They  found  various  representatives  for 
ships  and  rafts,  which  they  navigated  about 
the  water  with  their  "  pushers,"  standing, 
themselves,  upon  the  bridge.  For  a  time  this 
afforded  pretty  good  amusement,  but  it  did 
not  last  very  long.  At  length  Rollo  went  to 
the  shore  on  one  side,  and  proposed  to  Henry 
to  go  to  the  shore  on  the  other,  so  that  they 
could  send  their  vessels  to  and  fro  to  one  an©- 
ther,  loaded  with  leaves  and  pebble-stones  for 
cargo. 

This  lasted  some  minutes  longer,  but  some- 
how or  other  Rollo  did  not  find  it  quite  so 
good  fun  as  he  had  expected.  At  length  they 
got  tired  and  let  the  vessels  drift  about,  and 
Rollo  took  up  a  stone;  and,  pointing  to  a  piece 
4 


33 

of  bark,  said  he  was  going  to  cannonade  that 
man-of-war. 

"  You  will  spatter  me,"  said  Henry. 

The  stone,  however,  had  taken  its  flight, 
and  striking  the  water  just  heyond  the  man- 
of-war,  sent  a  few  drops  over  to  Henry. 

Henry  took  it  very  good-naturedly,  and 
thought  he  would  cannonade  the  man-of-Avar 
too ;  in  doing  which,  he  spattered  Rollo  a 
little.  Rollo  laughed  and  threw  another 
stone;  and  thus  they  continued  for  a  little 
time,  until  they  found  they  were  beginning  to 
get  wet,  when  at  length  they  desisted. 

They  now  did  not  know  what  to  do  with 
themselves.  They  were  a  little  wet,  and, 
consequently,  a  little  uncomfortable.  They 
ought  not  to  have  spattered  themselves  even 
so  little  as  they  had  done;  and  the  secret  feel- 
ing that  they  had  not  done  quite  right,  made 
them  a  little  uncomfortable  in  mind  as  well 
as  in  body. 

At  last,  as  they  were  playing  idly  in  the 
water,  Rollo  having  one  end  of  his  "pusher" 
in  his  mouth  and  the  other  in  the  water,  he 
suddenly  took  it  out  of  his  mouth  and  said, 

'•'  Oh,  Henry,  look  here." 

Then  Rollo  put  the  end  of  his  "pusher" 
into  his  mouth  again,  and  held  the  other  end 


ROLLO'S    VACATION.  41 

in  the  water  again  a  moment,  and  then  drew 
it  out ;  when  Henry  saw  a  stream  of  water 
issuing  from  the  lower  end,  shooting  back  into 
the  water  of  the  brook. 

"  How  do  you  do  it?"  said  Henry. 

"I  suck  the  water  up,"  said  Rollo,  "and 
then  blow  it  out  again." 

The  boys  were  much  pleased  with  this  ex- 
periment, in  which  they  both  succeeded  bet- 
ter and  better  on  repeated  trials.  They  found 
that  they  could  throw  the  water  farther  and 
farther  out  towards  the  middle  of  the  brook ; 
and  finally,  Rollo,  by  aiming  pretty  high  and 
blowing  hard,  succeeded  in  projecting  his 
stream  away  across  to  the  land  where  Henry 
was  standing. 

They  both  shouted  with  laughter  at  this, 
and  the  next  moment  Henry  tried.  He  suc- 
ceeded in  throwing  his  jet  so  far  as  to  sprinkle 
Rollo  with  it  a  little,  at  which  the  boys  shout- 
ed again;  and  in  a  few  minutes  they  were 
both  busily  engaged  drawing  up  their  "  push- 
ers" full  of  water,  and  then  blowing  it  out, 
with  all  their  strength,  towards  one  another. 

Rollo  said  he  was  an  elephant,  taking  up 

water  with  his  trunk;  and  Henry  said  he  was 

a  whale — a  great,  spouting  whale.    In  a  word, 

the  boys  were  in  great  glee.     And  yet,  after 

b* 


42 

all,  they  were  not  really  happy.  There  was 
a  sort  of  hollowness  in  their  mirth,  and  a 
secret  feeling  of  dissatisfaction,  which  made 
the  pleasure  of  this  merriment  very  different 
from  the  quiet  and  gentle  happiness  of  the 
holiday  at  Miss  Mary?s  school.  In  fact,  the 
boys  were  beginning  to  get  considerably  wet, 
though  the  wetting  came  so  very  gradually 
that  they  did  not  think  much  of  it,  except 
that  there  was  a  secret  feeling  that  they  were 
not  doing  quite  right. 

Rollo  would  have  known  very  well  that  it 
was  Wrong  to  wet  his  clothes  in  this  way,  if 
it  had  only  been  done  at  once  and  suddenly. 
But  the  water  came  upon  him  only  a  few 
drops  at  a  time,  and  each  of  these  additions 
being  so  small,  he  did  not  think  much  of  it. 
But  at  length  his  clothes  became  quite  wet, 
and  as  the  hours  of  the  afternoon  moved -on, 
and  it  began  to  grow  cool,  he  found  that  he 
felt  uncomfortable.  At  last  he  desisted  from 
his  spouting,  and  holding  his  "pusher"  in 
one  hand,  he  patted  the  legs  of  his  trousers 
with  the  other,  and  said, 

"  Oh,  Henry,  how  wet  you  have  made  me  : 
you  have  spouted  the  water  all  over  me." 

This  was  the  wrong  mode  of  speaking; 
for  it  seemed  to  imply  that  Henry  alone  was 


43 

to  blame  for  Rollo's  being  wet.  When  boys 
do  anything  wrong  together,  they  are  both 
guilty,  and  should  not  attempt  to  charge  the 
fault  upon  each  other.  Each  should,  freely 
take  his  share  of  the  blame.  By  throwing  it 
upon  the  other  he  only  leads  that  other  to 
recrimination,  and  thus  a  dispute  arises.  It 
was  so  here;  for  Rollo,  by  speaking  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  criminate  Henry,  only  led  Henry 
to  recriminate  him. 

"And  see  how  you  have  wet  wze,"  said 
Henry,  looking  down  at  his  own  legs  and 
feet. 

"Oh,  that  is  only  a  little,"  said  Rollo; 
"you  have  wet  me  a  great  dear  more  than 
that." 

"  Oh — I  haven't,"  said  Henry.  "  I  am  wet 
a  great  deal  the  most." 

An  impartial  spectator  would  have  been 
puzzled  to  decide  which  was  wet  the  most, 
for  it  was  about  equal.  They,  however,  were 
both  somewhat  out  of  humor,  and  conse- 
quently unreasonable  ;  and  they  continued  to 
dispute  about  it,  each  charging  the  other  with 
being  most  to  blame. 

At  last  they  threw  away  their  "pushers" 
and  began  to  walk  along  towards  home,  out 
of  humor  with  themselves  and  with  each 


44  hollo's  vacation. 

other.  Rollo  said  that  he  should  not  come  to 
play  with  Henry  any  more ;  and  Henry  said 
he  did  not  want  him  to  come, — he  did  not  like 
to  be  wet  all  over.  Thus  they  walked  along 
until  they  came  out  of  the  woods.  Here  they 
found  a  cool,  autumnal  evening  breeze  blow- 
ing, and  it  made  them  feel  quite  cold.  Rollo 
looked  at  the  west  also,  and  found  that  the 
sun  was  almost  down,  and  that  he  ought  to 
be  at  home.  Accordingly,  when  they  reached 
Henry's  house,  he  went  directly  by,  on  the 
way  towards  home. 

At  length  he  reached  the  brook  which  he 
had  crossed  on  his  way,  early  in  the  after- 
noon. He  had  the  same  trouble  in  crossing 
as  before,  but  at  length  he  succeeded  in  jump- 
ing over,  and  the  moment  after  he  suddenly 
stopped  and  said, 

"There,  now  I  have  left  my  whip." 

He  tried  to  think  where  he  had  left  it,  but 
could  not.  Then  he  walked  back  to  the  edge 
of  the  brook,  and  deliberated  a  moment  whe- 
ther he  had  better  cross  it  again  or  not.  It 
was  getting  dark,  and  it  appeared  to  Rollo, 
who  was  now  in  the  woods,  that  the  daylight 
was  farther  gone  than  it  really  was. 

He  stood  on  the  bank,  uncertain  what  to 
do,  and  vexed  with  himself  for  having  forgot- 


45 

ten  his  whip.  One  moment  he  thought  he 
would  go  after  it,  and  then  again  he  con- 
cluded that  it  would  be  so  dark  before  he 
could  get  back  to  the  brook  that  he  should 
not  be  able  to  find  his  way  atcross.  So  he 
turned  slowly  and  reluctantly  towards  home. 

As  soon  as  he  got  out  of  the  woods  he 
came  into  the  daylight  again;  and  here  he 
found  a  new  source  of  vexation  in  thinking 
that  he  might  have  gone  back  as  well  as  not. 
He  should  have  had  plenty  of  time,  he  said. 
He  looked  back  into  the  woods  and  hesitated 
again ;  but  now  there  was  so  much  farther  to 
go,  that  he  gave  up  the  idea  and  went  home. 

He  came  into  the  kitchen  and  stood  by  the 
fire,  wet,  cold  and  uncomfortable  in  body, 
and  irritated  and  fretted  in  mind.  His  mother 
asked  him  some  questions,  and  found  that  he 
was  not  humble  and  submissive,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  peevish  and  cross,  and  disposed  to 
make  excuses  for  himself,  and  to  throw  cen- 
sures upon  others. 

His  mother  concluded,  therefore,  that  he 
had  better  be  sent  to  bed,  as  it  was  not  right 
that  he  should  make  all  the  family  uncom- 
fortable by  his  ill-humor  and  complaints. 
His  wet  clothes  were  accordingly  taken  off, 


46 


ROLLO'S  VACATION. 


his  feet  dried  and  warmed,  some  supper  was 
given  him,  and  then  he  crept  into  his  bed,  as 
dissatisfied  and  unhappy  as  boys  generally 
are  after  a  whole  day  of  play. 


BOLLO'S    VACATION.  47 


A  NEW  MASTER. 

Early  the  next  morning  Rollo  awoke,  and, 
as.  soon  as  he  recollected  himself  a  little,  he 
remembered  that  it  was  his  vacation,  and  he 
felt  rather  sorry  for  it.  He  wished,  in  his 
heart,  that  there  was  going  to  be  a  school. 

He  got  up  and  began  to  look  for  his  clothes, 
but  could  not  find  them.  At  first  he  was 
much  surprised,  and  wondered  where  they 
could  be. 

•"Ah,"  sa^d  he,  at  last,  to  himself,  "I  re- 
member. I  left  them  down  stairs  to  be  dried." 
So  he  crept  back  into  bed  again. 

He  laid  still  a  short  time,  thinking  whether 
he  had  better  wait  until  some  one  came 
to  bring  him  his  clothes,  or  knock  for  his 
mother  to  come.  He  was  accustomed  to 
knock  upon  the  partition,  which  separated 
his  room  from  his  mother's,  whenever  he 
wanted  anything,  and  when  she  heard  it 
she  would  come  to  him. 

He  did  not  quite  like  to  knock  for  his  mo- 
ther to  come  and  bring  him  his  clothes,  though 
he  scarcely  knew  why.  While  he  was  thus 
doubting,  he  heard  a  noise  in  the  yard,  which 


48 


he  thought  might  be  Jonas.  He  jumped  out 
of  bed  and  went  to  the  window,  and  saw 
Jonas  leading  the  horse  to  the  pump  to  be 
watered. 

Rollo  opened  the  window  and  fastened  it 
up  with  a  button. 

"Jonas,"  said  he,  "will  you  be  good 
enough  to  bring  me  up  my  clothes?" 

"  Yes,"  said  Jonas,  "  as  soon  as  I  have  led 
the  horse  back." 

Rollo  was  always  pretty  sure  of  having 
Jonas  do  anything  for  him  that  he  asked,  pro- 
vided it  was  reasonable.  There  were  two 
reasons  for  this ;  one  was  that  Jonas  was  a 
very  obliging  boy,  and  the  other  was  that 
Rollo  always  asked  him  in  a  gentle  and  pro- 
per manner.  Some  boys  would  have  said,  in 
such  a  case,  in  a  rough  and  scolding  voice, 

"Jonas,  go  and  get  my  clothes  and  bring 
them  up  to  me, — quick." 

But  Rollo  observed  that  his  father  and  mo- 
ther never  spoke  so  to  those  whom  they  em- 
ployed ;  and,  in  fact,  his  father  told  him  one 
day,  that  it  was  altogether  the  most  effectual 
way  of  inducing  persons  to  do  what  we  want, 
to  ask  them  in  a  kind  and  proper  manner. 

In  a  few  minutes  Rollo  heard  footsteps 
coming  up  stairs;  and  presently  Jonas  ap- 


49 


peared,  with  Rollo' s  clothes,  dry  and  warm, 
hanging  over  his  shoulder. 

"  Wellj  Rollo,"  said  Jonas,  "  you  have  got 
another  day  of  vacation." 

Rollo  said  nothing. 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do  to-day  V9 

¥  I  don't  know, — exactly,"  said  Rollo,  sit- 
ting up  in  his  bed.     "  What  would  you  do?" 

"Oh,  play  about,  I  suppose,"  said  Jonas. 

9  But  I  don't  like  playing  about,"  said 
Rollo. 

"It  is  miserable  business,  I  know,"  said 
Jonas.     "  But  I  think  I  could  make  you  have 
a  good  time,"  he  continued,  "  if  you  would 
do  as  I  say." 
x     "I  wish  you  would,"  said  Rollo. 

"  But  you  won't  do  as  I  say." 

"What  should  you  tell  me  to  do?"  said 
Rollo. 

"  I  can't  tell  you  unless  you  promise  before- 
hand to  do  it." 

Rollo  hesitated  a  moment,  Jonas  standing 
all  the  time  with  his  hand  upon  the  latch  of 
the  door,  ready  to  go  out. 

"  Well,  I  will  promise,"  said  Rollo. 

"You  will  obey  me  exactly?"  said  Jonas. 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo. 

"All  day?" 
c  5 


50  ROLLO*  S   VACATION. 

"Yes,  all  day," 

"  And  do  whatever  I  tell  you,  let  it  be  what 
it  will?" 

"Yes,"  saidRollo,  "I  will." 

"  Well'  then,  get  up  and  dress  you,  and 
after  breakfast  come  out  into  the  barn  to  me." 

Rollo's  curiosity  was  very  much  excited  to 
know  what  Jonas  was  going  to  tell  him  to  do. 
He  dressed  himself  and  went  down;  and 
finding  it  was  still  quite  early,  he  went  and 
asked  his  mother  to  let  him  go  over  to  Hen- 
ry's and  get  his  whip  before  breakfast.  His. 
mother  consented,  and  he  set  off. 

Just  as  he  was  going  out  through  the  front 
gate,  Jonas  called  to  him  and  asked  him 
where  he  was  going.  Rollo  told  him  that  he 
was  going  after  his  whip. 

"But,"  said  Jonas,  "I  thought  you  pro- 
mised me  that  you  would  be  under  my  com- 
mand to-day." 

"Oh,"  replied  Rollo,  "I  did  not  know  that 
you  meant  before  breakfast." 

"  The  agreement  was  all  day,"  said  Jonas. 

"  But  I  just  want  to  go  and  get  my  whip, 
because  I  am  afraid  it  will  get  lost." 

"  That  is  a  very  good  plan,  only  you  ought 
to  have  asked  me.     However,  you  may  go." 


hollo's  vacation.  51 

"  Seems  to  me,"  said  Rollo,  "you  are 
rather  a  strict  master." 

"  That  I  am,"  said  Jonas,  laughing.  "You'll 
find  me  stricter  than  you  think,  before  the 
day  is  through  " 

So  Rollo  went  along  after  his  whip.  As  he 
drew  near  the  house  he  saw  nothing  of  Hen- 
ry. He  went  on  into  the  yard,  where  they 
had  been  at  play.  Henry's  father  was  lead- 
ing a  horse  across  the  yard.  As  soon  as  he 
saw  Rollo  he  said, 

"Here,  young  man;  I  suppose  you  have 
come  for  your  whip.     There  it  is." 

So  saying,  he  pointed  to  the  fence;  and 
there  Rollo  saw  his  whip  hanging  up  in  a  con- 
spicuous place,  that  is,  in  a  place  where  it 
could  be  very  plainly  seen. 

"  I  thank  you,  sir,"  said  Rollo ;  and  he 
went  and  took  his  whip  down,  and  walked 
away  towards  home. 

After  breakfast  JR.0II0  went  out  in  pursuit 
of  Jonas.  He  found  him  just  going  into  the 
garden,  with  a  wheelbarrow,  and  some  garden 
tools  in  it. 

"Now,  Jonas,"  said  Rollo,  "I  am  ready; 
tell  me  what  I  shall  play.3 


52  hollo's  vacation. 

"Play!"  said  Jonas.  "I  am  going  to  set 
you  at  work,  not  play." 

"At  work?"  said  Rollo.  "I  thought  you 
was  going  to  tell  me  how  to  have  a  good  time 
at  play." 

"I  can't  stop  to  talk  about  it  here,"  said 
Jonas.  "  I  must  go  on  with  my  work.  You 
c^me  in  with  me.' 

So  he  wheeled  his  wheelbarrow  through  the 
gate,  Rollo  following  him. 

"  Did  I  say  I  was  only  going  to  set  you  at 
play?"  said  he,  as  they  walked  along. 

"Why,  no,"  said  Rollo,  "but  I  "thought 
so." 

"  Well,"  said  Jonas,  "  I  release  yon  then 
from  the  promise,  if  there  was  a  mistake." 

So  Jonas  took  the  tools  out  of  the  wheel- 
barrow and  placed  them  against  the  fence, 
and  then,  taking  the  hoe,  he  began  hoeing  over 
one  of  the  alleys. 

"  What  work  should  you  want  me  to  do?" 
said  Rollo.  after  a  pause.  , 

11 1  can't  tell  yon  anything  about  it,  unless 
you  put  yourself  entirely  under  my  command. 
Unless  you  can  trust  it  all  to  me,  you  had 
better  amuse  yourself  in  your  own  way." 

"  Should  you  make  me  work  all  day?" 

"  I  can't  tell  you  anything  about  it,"  said 


53 

Jonas ;  "only  I  will  agree  that  you  shall  have 
a  good  time." 

"Yes,  but  then,"  said  Rollo,  "if  I  don't 
have  a  good  time,  the  day  will  be  lost,  and 
what  good  will  your  agreement  do  me?" 

"  We  must  have  a  penalty  then,"  said 
Jonas. 

"What  is  a  penalty?"  said  Rollo. 

"  Why,  something  for  me  to  do  to  you  to 
make  amends  for  the  loss  of  your  day,  if  you 
don't  have  a  good  time.". 

"Well,"  said  Rollo,  "I  should  like  that. 
What  shall  the  penalty  be?" 

"  Let  me  see,"  said  Jonas.  "I  will  tell  you 
what.  I  will  agree  that  if,  when  night  comes, 
you  say  you  have  not  had  a  better  time  than 
you  had  yesterday,  I  will  make  you  a  little 
ship.' 

"  Agreed,"  said  Rollo.     "  I  will." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Jonas.  "  Now  go  and 
get  your  little  rake,  and  rake  up  all  these 
weeds  into  little  heaps  as  fast  as  I  hoe  them 
up." 

So  Rollo  got  his  rake,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
they  were  both  at  work  very  busily. 

Jonas  hoed  up  the  weeds,  and  Rollo  raked 
them  up  into  little  heaps;  and  then  Rollo 
went  and  brought  his  shovel  and  shovelled 
5* 


54 


them  up  into  Jonas' s  wheelbarrow.  Thus 
they  passed  regularly  along  from  alley  to 
alley,  until  they  had  gone  over  the  whole  gar- 
den.    It  took  them  about  two  hours. 

While  they  were  doing  this  work,  Rollo 
asked  Jonas  what  was  to  come  next,  when 
this  was  done. 

"J  am  going  to  saw  wood  in  the  yard," 
said  Jonas,  "and  I  am  going  to  set  you  to 
studying." 

"  To  studying ! "  -said  Rollo.  "lam  sure 
I  am  not  going  to  studying." 

"  A'n't  you  ?"  said  Jonas.     "  Yery  well." 

There  was  a  pause.     At  length  said  Rollo, 

"  But  were  you  really  going  to  set  me  to 
studying?" 

"Yes,"  said  Jonas;  "and  you  promised  to 
do  whatever  I  should  say.  But  you  can  do 
just  as  you  please  about  keeping  your  pro- 
mise." .   ^ 

"  I  don't  want  to  break  my  promise,"  Rollo 
replied,  "  but  I  did  not  expect  that  you  were 
going  to  set  me  to  studying  in  my  vacation." 

"  It  is  because  I  think  that  is  the  best  way 
to  make  you  have  a  good  time." 

"What,  studying!" 

"  Yes,  studying  a  part  of  the  time.     Here 


ROLLO'S    VACATION.  55 

now,  I  have  kept  you  at  work  two  hours, 
and  haven't  you  had  a  good  time  V1 

"Why— yes,"  said  Rollo;  "but  then  I 
don't  want  to  study." 

"Very  well,"  said  Jonas;  "if  you  don't 
Want  to  keep  your  promise,  I'll  let  you  off." 

"  Then  I  shall  lose  my  ship,  I  suppose  1" 

"Certainly,"  said  Jonas. 

Rollo  did  not  want  to  lose  his  ship,  and 
then,  besides,  he  knew  it  was  not  right  to 
break  his  promise ;  and  so,  just  as  they  had 
finished  their  work  in  the  garden  and  were 
wheeling  out  the  last  load  of  weeds,  he  told 
Jonas  that  he  believed,  on  the  whole,  he 
would  do  whatever  he  told  him,  even  if  it 
was  to  study. 

They  put  the  weeds  by  the  side  of  a  great 
heap  of  compost,  behind  the  barn,  and  then 
Jonas  sent  Rollo  to  put  all  the  tools  away. 
When  he  came  back  he  found  Jonas  just  at 
work  with  his  saw. 

"Now,  Rollo,"  said  he,  "go  up  into  my 
room  and  look  in  my  desk,  and  you  will  find 
an  inkstand,  and  a  pen  and  some  paper. 
Bring  down  one  sheet  of  paper,  and  the  ink- 
stand and  pen." 

Rollo  obeyed.  He  went  up  the  back  stairs 
o  Jonas'  s  room.    It  was  small  and  unfinished, 


56 

and  the  wall  overhead  was  slanting,  being 
the  under  side  of  the  roof  of  the  house.  There 
was  a  bed  in  it,  and  one  window.  .  Near  the 
window  was  a  plain,  pine  desk,  which  Jonas 
had  made  for  himself,  and  by  the  side  of  the 
desk  was  a  chest.  Over  the  chest  were  two 
or  three  shelves,  containing  a  few  books,  and 
near  them,  on  the  wall,  was  nailed  a  picture, 
which  Rollo  remembered  he  had  given  Jonas 
some  time  before,  because  it  was  torn  and 
spoilt.  Jonas  had  smoothed  it  out  and  mend- 
ed it,  and  nailed  it  up  there,  and  it  made 
quite  a  handsome  picture  again. 

Rollo  was  quite  pleased  with  the  appear- 
ance of  Jonas's  room;  for,  though  it  was 
rough  and  rude  in  its  form  and  finish,  yet  it 
was  in  such  neat  order,  that  it  looked  very 
alluring  and  pleasant.  He  opened  Jonas's 
desk,  and  was  still  more  pleased  at  what  he 
saw  within.  In  one  corner  in  front  was  a 
black  inkstand,  with  a  stopper  in  it,  to  keep 
the  ink  from  drying  away.  By  the  side  of 
the  inkstand  was  a  ruler,  a  pencil,  and  two 
pens,  and  also  a  curious-looking  instrument 
of  wood,  consisting  of  two  long  pointed  legs, 
imited  by  a  kind  of  a  joint  at  one  end. 

"What  a. curious  thing  that  is,"  thought 


ROLLO'S    VACATION.  57 

Rollo.  "It  looks  like  my  father's  dividers. 
I  suppose  Jonas  made  it." 

In  another  corner  there  was  a  small, 
square  bottle,  not  bigger  than  the  inkstand, 
which  contained  red  ink ;  and  at  the  side  of 
it  was  a  covered  box,  made  of  paper,  and 
marked  on  the  outside,  Soda  Powders.  Rollo 
opened  it,  and  saw  within  a  piece  of  India 
rubber,  a  little  sand-paper,  two  curious  coins, 
a  small  pencil-case,  and  some  other  similar 
valuables.  At  the  back  side  of  the  desk  was 
a  slate,  about  half  filled  with  figures,  very 
neatly  written.  There  were  some  papers  un- 
der the  slate,  and  Rollo  lifted  it  up  to  see 
what  they  were.  The  first  paper  had  a  large 
and  handsome  multiplication  table  drawn  up- 
on it.  All  around  the  outside  was  a  double 
line,  the  outer  one  being  black  and  the  inner 
red,  and  all  the  lines  which  formed  the 
squares  were  red ;  so  that .  the  table  had  a 
very  beautiful  appearance.  The  figures  in 
the  squares  were  written  very  neatly  and 
regularly. 

Rollo  then  thought  that  perhaps  Jonas 
would  not  like  to  have  him  look  at  his  papers 
and  writings,  and  so  he  put  down  the  slate 
again,  and  took  a  single  sheet  of  paper  off 
from  a  pile  of  sheets  of  paper,  which  was  in 


the  other  back  corner.  He  also  took  the  ink- 
stand and  pen,  and  went  down  stairs,  inter- 
nally resolving  that  he  would  ask  Jonas  £ome 
day  to  let  him  see  all  his  papers,  and  also 
what  was  in  his  chest. 

Rollo  went  out  into  the  yard  with  his  writ- 
ing implements,  and  brought  them  to  Jonas. 
Jonas  took  them  and  asked  Rollo  to  follow 
him.  He  did  so,  wondering  what  Jonas  was 
going  to  set  him  to  do. 

Jonas  went  into  the  barn,  Rollo  following 
him.  They  proceeded  to  a  small  apartment, 
partitioned  off  for  a  sort  of  shop,  where  the 
great  work-bench  was.  Jonas  took  a  brush 
and  brushed  the  dust  off  of  one  end  of  the 
bench,  and  then  laid  a  smooth  board  upon  it, 
and  spread  a  newspaper  over  the  board.  He 
put  the  white  paper  upon  the  newspaper,  and 
the  inkstand  and  pen  upon  the  bench. 

Rollo  laughed  aloud  at  such  a  droll  place 
to  study,  and  asked  Jonas  what  he  was  going 
to  do  for  a  chair.  ,     \ 

"  You'll  see  in  a  moment,"  said  Jonas.  So 
saying,  he  went  to  one  corner  of  the  shop  and 
brought  an  empty  barrel  along.  He  stood 
this  up  on  one  end  opposite  the  end  of  the 
bench,  and  put  a  small  board  across. 


■ 


59 

"There,"  said  he,  "how  do  you  like  that 
for  a  desk?" 

"Oh,  pretty  well,"  said  Rollo:  "but  what 
shall  1  write?" 

i  "  Come  out  here  to  my  woodpile,  so  that  I 
can  be  at  work,  and  I  will  tell  you." 

So  Rollo  followed  Jonas  out  to  the  wood- 
pile, and  the  following  conversation  ensued, 
Jonas  sawing  and  splitting  wood  all  the  time. 

"I  want  you  to  cypher,"  said  Jonas. 

"Cypher!"  replied  Rollo.  "Oh,  I  can't 
cypher  with  pen  and  ink." 

"Why  not?"  said  Jonas. 

Rollo  laughed  aloud  at  the  absurdity  of 
cyphering  with  pen  and  ink,  and  said, 

"  Oh,  I  must  have  a  slate.  I  can't  cypher 
without  a  slate." 

"  But  why  not?"  said  Jonas. 

"Oh,  I  can't  rub  out  the  figures  when  I 
make  mistakes." 

"  I  don't  want  to  have  you  make  any  mis- 
takes." 

"  Oh,  but  I  can't  help  it,"  said  Rollo. 

"Why,  suppose  this  was  your  sum,"  said 
Jonas,  as  he  rolled  out  a  fresh  log  from  the 
pile.  "  Suppose  you  had  a  2  and  a  6  under 
it,  and  they  were  to  be  added  together,,  what 
should  you  do?" 


60  hollo's  vacation. 

"Oh,  I  should  say  6  and  2  make  eight, 
and  I  should  write  down  the  8,  under." 

"  Are  you  sure  6  and  2  make  8  ?" 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo. 

"Perfectly  sure?"  said  Jonas. 

"  Why,  yes,"  said  Rollo. 

"And  are  you  sure  you  have  to  set  the  8 
down  underneath?" 

"  Why,  certainly,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Well,  now,  suppose  you  added  up  several 
figures  (and  they  made  13;  what  should  you 
set  down,  and  what  should  you  carry?" 

"  I  should  set  down  3  and  carry  1." 

"You  mean  set  down  1  and  carry  3,  don't 
you?"  said  Jonas,  looking  up  with  a  half 
smile. 

"  Why,  no,"  said  Rollo ;  "we  set  down  the 
3  and  carry  the  1." 

"Are  you  sure?" 

"  Yes,  I  am  sure"  said  Rollo,  looking  very 
positive. 

"  And  if,  you  should  have  13  from  adding 
up  a  column,  and  should  put  down  3  and 
carry  1,  are  you  positive  it  would  he  right?" 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "positive."  i 

"And  suppose  the  next  column  should 
make  21,  how  much  should  you  have  to  add 
to  it  for  carrying  from  the   13?" 


61 


"  I  must  add  1,  and  that  would  make  22." 

"Are  you  sure  now,  Rollo,"  said  Jonas, 
"that  21  and  1  make  22?" 

Rollo  began  to  get  a  little  out  of  patience 
at  this,  and  did  no*  answer. 

"I  don't  mean  to  tease  you,"  said  Jonas, 
"  but  you  see  you  can  be  sure  in  cyphering, 
and  if  you  don't  take  sums  too  hard,  and  then 
attend  fully  to  what  you  are  about,  you  need 
not  make  any  mistakes." 

Rollo  thought  there  was  some  truth  in  this, 
but  yet  he  was  not  quite  satisfied ;  and  after 
a  moment's  pause  he  said, 

"  But  all  boys  do  make  mistakes  in  cypher- 
ing." 

"  Then  it  is  because  they  have  too  hard 
sums  to  do,  or  else  because  they  are  careless. 
You  must  not  mark  down  a  single  figure, 
Rollo,  till  you  are  sure  it  is  the  right  one,  and 
then  you  won't  make  mistakes." 

Rollo  could  not  object  to  this,  but,  after  all, 
he  thought  he  had  rather  have  a  slate;  "be- 
cause," said  he,  "then,  you  know,  Jonas, 
that  if  I  should  happen  to  make  a  mistake,  I 
could  rub  it  out." 

"  Yes;  but  if  you  should  happen  to  make 
a  mistake  I  don't  want  it  rubbed  out.     I  want 
to  know  how  many  mistakes  you  make." 
6 


62 

"Well,"  said  Rollo,  "you  come  and  set 
me  some  sums." 

"  No,  you  must  set  your  own  sums;  I  must 
saw  my  wood.  You  may  go  and  write  three 
numbers  on  the  top  of  your  paper ;  put  six 
figures  in  each  number." 

"  Shall  I  put  them  under  each  other?"  said 
Rollo. 

"  No ;  along  in  a  row,  a  little  distance 
apart,  for  four  separate  sums.  I  want  them 
all  multiplied  by  2,  and  as  soon  as  you  have 
done  it,  come  and  tell  me." 

So  Rollo  went  back  to  the  bench  and  clam- 
bered up  to  his  seat  upon  the  barrel.  He 
found  it  rather  too  high,  but  he  concluded  to 
get  along  -with  it,  and  so  he  wrote  down  the 
numbers,  and  put  the  figure  2  under  the  unit's 
figure  of  each,  and  multiplied,  taking  great 
pains  to  have  every  result  right  before  he  put 
it  down.  When  it  was  done,  he  descended 
from  his  seat  and  went  to  report  to  Jonas. 

"You  have  done  them,  have  you?"  said 
Jonas. 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  handing  him  the  paper. 
"  Here,  .look  and  see  if  they  are  not  right." 

"Oh  no,"  said  Jonas;  "I  can't  look  them 
over.  You  have  done  them  all  three,  have 
you?" 


63 


"Yes,"  saidRollo. 

"  And  got  three  separate  answers?" 

"Yes." 

M  Yery  well ;  now  go  back  and  multiply  all 
those  answers  by  5." 

So  Rollo  went  back  to  his  work.  He  mul- 
tiplied the  first  one  by  5,  very  carefully. 
Then  he  stopped  to  rest  a  little,  and  a  minute 
or  two  afterwards  Jonas  heard  a  noise  there, 
as  if  a  horse  was  kicking  violently  upon  the 
stable  floor.  He  went  and  looked  in  to  see 
what  was  the  matter. 

Rollo,  he  found,  had  laid  down  his  pen, 
and  had  his  hands  resting  upon  the  edge  of 
the  bench,  and  was  drumming  away  with  his 
heels  against  the  side  of  the  barrel. 

"Why,  Rollo,"  said  Jonas,  "what  are  you 
about?" 

"  Oh,  Jonas,"  said  Rollo,  looking  round, 
"are  you  there?  See,  this  is  my  kettle-drum;" 
and  he  began  beating  another  tattoo  upon  the 
barrel  with  his  heels. 

Jonas,  however,  soon  stopped  that  opera- 
tion, and  told  Rollo  he  was  there  to  cypher, 
not  to  drum.  Rollo  desisted  and  returned  to 
his  work,  as  Jonas  did  to  his. 

In  a  short  time,  Rollo  came  out  with  his 
paper,  saying  he*  had  finished  his  work. 


64 


"  You  have  multiplied  all  your  first  answers 
by  5,  have  you?"  said  Jonas,  without,  how- 
ever, looking  at  the  work. 

"Yes,"  saidRollo. 

"  Then  you  have  got  a  new  set  of  answers, 
which  I  call  the  final  answers.     Now  look  at  * 
the  first  final  answer.    Is  the  last  .figure  in  it, 
that  is,  the  unit's  figure,  a  cypher?" 

"Yes,"  saidRollo. 

"  And  so  with  the  next  answer ;  is  the  last 
in  that  a  cypher?" 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo,  surprised. 

"And  the  next,  is  that  so  too?" 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo;  "but  how  did  you 
know?" 

"Because,"  said  Jonas,  "I  believe  that  if 
you  multiply  any  number  whatever  by  5, 
and  then  by  2,  the  unit's  figure  in  the  final 
answer  will  always  be  a  cypher." 

"  Will  it?"  said  Rollo.     "  How  curious." 

"  Now  mark  out  all  the  cyphers  with  your 
pen." 

So  Rollo  put  his  paper  down  upon  a  smooth 
log  and  crossed  out  the  cyphers,  Jonas  all  the 
time  going  on  with  his  sawing. 

"Now,"  said  Jonas,  "see  if  your  answers 
are  just  the  same  as  the  numbers  you  first 
wrote  down." 


hollo's  vacation.  65 

Rollo  compared  and  said,  "Why,  yes," 
with  looks  of  astonishment.  "-How  queer. 
Will  it  always  come  so,  Jonas?" 

u  Yes,"  said  Jonas,  "  if  you  multiply  by  5, 
and  then  by  2.  I  read  it  in  a  book  once,  and 
I  have  tried  it  a  great  many  times,  and  it 
always  has  whenever  I  have  tried  it,  and  I 
expect  it  always  will.  But  now  you  have 
studied  enough  for  a  vacation  day,  so  go  and 
put  my  things  away,  only  leave  your  paper 
on  the  bench." 

.Rollo  walked  off  with  his  work,  highly 
satisfied  with  what  he  had  done,  and  much 
interested  in  the  very  extraordinary  mathe- 
matical powers  of  5  and  2  as  a  continued 
multiplier. 

When  he  had  got  pretty  near  to  the  barn- 
door, he  turned  round  and  said,  "  Jonas,  I 
wish  you  would  let  me  do  two  or  three  more 
sums."   • 

"  No,"  said  Jonas ;  "  I  can't  let  you  cypher 
any  more  now.  I  want  you  to  come  and 
play." 

c*         6* 


66 


THE  JACK-O'-LANTERN. 

Rollo  went  up  to  Jonas' s  room  to  put  away 
the  pen  and  the  inkstand.  The  window  was 
open,  and  he  stopped  a  moment  to  look  out. 
The  yard  was  spread  out  before  him,  and  be- 
yond it  the  garden.  One  square  in  the  garden 
was  rilled  with  corn.  The  ears  had  all  been 
gathered  when  green,  for  roasting  and  boiling, 
and  nothing  now  remained  but  the  dry  and 
whitened  stalks,  with  large  yellow  pumpkins 
peeping  out  among  them. 

"  The  pumpkins  are  ripe,"  said  Rollo  to 
himself.  "  I  wish  Jonas  would  let  me  go  and 
gather  them.  I  could  wheel  one  in  at  a  time, 
in  my  little  wheelbarrow,  I  know." 

He  determined  to  go  and  ask  Jonas ;  and, 
full  of  this  idea,  he  ran  off  down  stairs. 

Jonas  agreed  to  his  proposal,  and  so  Rollo 
went  and  got  his  wheelbarrow  and  went  into 
the  garden.  He  selected  the  largest  yellow 
pumpkin  that  he  could  find,  and  cut  it  off 
where  the  stem  joined  the  vine. 

The  curved  ,stem  served  him  for  a  handle, 
and  by  dint  of  great  effort  he  succeeded  in 


67 

getting  it  out  into  the  alley,  and  then  into  his 
wheelbarrow. 

He  wheeled  it  along,  quite  proud  of  his 
load,  and  thinking  how  many  pies  such  a 
great  pumpkin  would  make.  As  he  came 
along  out  of  the  garden,  he  concluded  to 
wheel  his  load  to  Jonas,  to  show  it  to  him, 
and  ask  him  where  to  put  it. 

Just  as  he  was  coming  out  through  the 
gate,  he  saw  his  mother  standing  at  the  door 
which  opened  upon  the  garden  yard. 

"What  are  you  doing,  Rollo?"  said  she. 

"I  am  gathering  the  pumpkins,"  said  he; 
"and,  mother,  I  have  been  Jonas' s  scholar 
this  forenoon." 

His  mother  asked  him  what  he  meant  by 
that ;  and  Rollo  explained  to  her  how  he  had 
agreed  to  put  himself  under  Jonas' s  directions, 
and  that  Jonas  had  made  him  work  half  of 
the  forenoon,  and  study  almost  all  the  other 
half. 

"What  did  you  study?"  said  his  mother. 

"  Oh,  I  cyphered,"  said  Rollo.  "  I  did  six 
sums  in  multiplication." 

Rollo  explained  'then  to  his  mother  all 
about  his  bench  and  barrel-seat.  His  mother 
seemed  quite  pleased  with  this  plan;  and 
when  Rollo  told  her  that  Jonas  was  going  to 


68 


give  him  a  ship  in  case  he  did  not  have  a 
good  time,  she  laughed,  and  told  him  she  was 
afraid  he  would  lose  his  ship. 

Then  Rollo  wheeled  his  pumpkin  along  to 
Jonas,  and,  after  asking  him  to  see  what  a 
noble  load  he  had  brought,  he  wanted  to 
know  where  he  should  put  his  pumpkins. 
Jonas  said  he  might  put  them  in  a  certain 
corner  of  the  garden  yard,  which  he  pointed 
out,  where  they  could  lay  some  days  in  the 
sun. 

Rollo  accordingly  turned  around  with  his 
load,  and  was  trundling  it  away,  when  Jonas 
told  him  not  to  put  any  but  ripe  pumpkins 
there.     . 

"And  what  shall  I  do  with  the  green 
ones?" 

"Oh, — I  don't  know,"  said  Jonas,  hesitat- 
ing; "they  a'n't  worth  much." 

"A'n't  they  good  for  anything?" 

"Only  to  give  to  the  pigs  and  make  jack- 
o'-lanterns  of." 

*  "Jack-o'-lanterns!"  said  Rollo;  "what 
are  jack-o'-lanterns  ?  " 

"  Did  you  never  see  one  ?"  said  Jonas. 

"  No,"  said  Rollo.     "  What  is  it  ?" 

"  Why,  we  take  a  pumpkin  and  dig  it  all 
out  inside,  and  then  cut  eyes  and  nose  and 


69 


mouth  in  it,  and  then  put  a  candle  in  and 
carry  it  out  in  the  dark,  and  it  makes  a  great 
grinning  face  of  fire." 

"Oh,  Jonas,"  said  Rollo,  "do  make  me 
one." 

"Well,  I  will  think  of  it,"  said  Jonas. 
"  You  go  and  get  in  the  ripe  pumpkins,  and 
if  you  find  any  green  one,  about  as  big  as  a 
man's  head,  which  you  think  will  make  a 
good  jack-o'-lantern,  you  can  bring  it  here." 

So  Rollo  went  back,  but  he  could  not  go 
on  with  his  work  until  he  had  looked  around 
and  chosen  his  great  green  pumpkin.  He 
wheeled  it  off  to  Jonas,  and  Jonas  aaid  that 
would  do  very  well. 

"  You  may  either  make  it  now,"  said  Jonas, 
"or  go  and  finish  gathering  the  ripe  pump- 
kins." 

"  Which  would  you  do  ?"  said  Rollo. 
•  "Why,  I  don't  know.  You  have  been  at 
work  and  at  study  so  much  to-day,  that  I 
think  you  have  fairly  a  right  to  play  now. 
But  then  I  think  it  very  probable  that  you 
would  take  more  pleasure  and  satisfaction  in 
working  upon  your  jack-o'-lantern  if  yon 
should  get  in  the  ripe  pumpkins  first." 

Rollo  walked  along  slowly,  trundling  his 
wheelbarrow  before  him,  towards  the  piazza, 


70  hollo's  vacation. 

considering  whether  he  had  better  make  his 
jack-o'-lantern  then,  or  wait  till  he  had 
finished  his  work.  He  concluded,  on  the 
whole,  to  take  Jonas' s  advice ;  and  so  he 
went  on  wheeling  the  yellow  pumpkins,  one 
at  a  time,  out  of  the  garden,  to  the  sunny 
corner  of  the  yard.  By  keeping  industriously 
at  work,  he  accomplished  the  whole  much 
sooner  than  he  had  expected ;  and  when  they 
were  all  out  he  counted  them  up,  and  found 
that  there  were  twenty.  He  looked  at  them 
as  they  lay  in  the  grass,  turning  up  their  fair 
yellow  sides  to  the  sun,  with  great  satisfac- 
tion.     6 

"Now  for  the  jack-o' -lantern, "  said  he; 
and  he  went  to  Jonas  to  ask  how  he  should 
go  to  work. 

"  First,  bring  the  pumpkin  to  me,  and  I 
will  mark  out  his  cap." 

Rollo  brought  it,  and  Jonas,  taking  his 
knife  out  of  his  pocket,  marked  a  circle  around 
the  top  of  it,  just  below  and  all  around  the 
stem.  .  . 

" There,"  said  he,  "now  go  into  the  house 
and  see  if  you  can  borrow  a  case  knife  and 
an  old  iron  spoon.  Then  with  the  knife  you 
must  cut  in  deep,  all  around  where  I  have 
marked,  and  then  the  cap  will  come  off  if  you 


71 

pull  by  the  handle.  Then  you  must  dig  it 
all  out  inside,  until  the  shell  is  only  as  thick 
as  your  hand." 

Rollo  was  starting  off  to  get  the  knife  and 
spoon,  when  Jonas  called  him  back  and  said, 

"  But  where  are  you  going  to  do  it?" 

"  Oh,  there  by  the  kitchen  door,"  said  he. 

V  Yes,"  said  Jonas,  "  and  so  you'll  lose 
jack-o'-lantern  and  all." 

"How?"  said  Rollo. 

"  Why,  the  way  that  I  have  known  many 
a  good  jack-o'-lantern  to  be  lost." 

"  How  do  you  mean?"  said  Rollo. 

"Why,  you  will  make  a  great  litter  of 
pumpkin  cuttings  and  seeds  all  about  the 
door,  and  then  your  mother  will  come  out 
and  say  she  can't  have  such  a  dirty  piece  of 
work  going  on  right  in  the  doorway,  and  will 
tell  you  to  carry  it  and  throw  it  all  into  the 
pig-pen." 

"  My  mother  wouldn't,  I  know." 

"Then  it  is  because  she  is  more  good- 
natured  than  most  mothers.  You  had  better 
not  tempt  her." 

"  Well,  what  shall  I  do?"  said  Rollo. 

"Why,  bring  it  out  here,"  said  Jonas, 
"  away  from  the  house,  and  get  some  old 
pail  to  put  the  cuttings  in,  and  also  go  and 


72  ROLLO'S    VACATION. 

get  an  apron  to  put  on  to  keep  your  clothes 
clean." 

Rollo  saw  at  once  that  this  was  good  sense, 
and  he  did  as  Jonas  had  advised.  But  just 
as  he  got  all  ready  to  commence  his  opera- 
tions, the  hell  rang  for  dinner. 

Rollo  was  astonished  to  find  that  it  was 
dinner-time,  and  he  had  actually  forgotten 
to  go  in  after  any  luncheon.  He  took  off  his 
apron  again,  however,  and  went  in,  thinking 
as  he  went  that  it  would  he  a  fine  plan  to 
keep  his  jack-o'-lantern  a  secret,  and  then  in 
the  evening  surprise  his  father  and  mother 
with  a  sight  of  it  out  of  the  front  windows. 

After  dinner  Rollo  rigged  himself  again  for 
his  work,  and  taking  his  seat  by  the  wood- 
pile, he  began  to  dig  out  his  jack-o'-lantern 
with  his  knife  and  spoon.  He  worked  away 
upon  it  some  time,  but  he  made  rather  slow 
progress,  for  the  inside  was  pretty  hard. 
After  some  time  he  wondered  why  Jonas  did 
not  come  and  saw  some  more  wood.  But 
Jonas  was  not  going  to  saw  any  more  wood 
that  day.     He  was  in  the  garden. 

After  a  time  Rollo  got  his  work  nearly 
done,  but  before  he  got  it  quite  completed  he 
became  tired,  and  concluded  to  leave  it  a 
little  while  and  go  and  look  for  Jonas. 


F.OLLo's   VACATION.  73 

He  accordingly  laid  his  pumpkin  down 
upon  a  log,  with  the  knife  and  spoon  by  its 
side,  and  then  rose  and  began  to  look  about 
after  Jonas.  In  a  moment  he  saw,  over  the 
top  of  the  garden  fence,  a  motion  among  the 
stalks  of  corn. 

"  Ah,"  said  he,  "  I  know.  Jonas  is  getting 
in  the  cornstalks." 

And  off  Rollo  ran  into  the  garden,  to  help 
him. 

He  saw  the  great  wheelbarrow  in  the  alley. 
The  sides  had  been  taken  out,  and  it  was 
half  filled  with  long  cornstalks  laid  across  it. 
Jonas  was  bringing  more  in  his  arms,  from 
time  to  time,  as  he  cut  them  down  from  the 
hills. 

"  Jonas,"  said  Rollo,  as  he  came  up,  "  may 
I  help?" 

"Yes,"  said  Jonas. 

"Well,  I  will  go  and  get  my  little  wheel- 
barrow." 

So  off  Rollo  ran,  in  pursuit  of  his  wheel- 
barrow, and  in  a  few  minutes  came  back 
trundling  it  before  him. 

But  the  sides  of  Rollo's  wheelbarrow  would 
not  come  out,  and  the  stalks  were  too  long  to 
be  put  in  lengthwise;  so  he  asked  Jonas  what 
he  should  do. 
d  7 


74  ROLLO'S   VACATION. 

"  Why,  I  think,"  said  Jonas,  "  that  you 
had  better  get  in  the  pumpkin  vines;  for  those 
you  can  crowd  down  into  your  wheelbarrow, 
any  way."    . 

"  But  there  are  some  green  pumpkins  left 
on,"  said  Rollo;  "what  shall  I  do  with 
those?" 

u  Oh,  you  can  put  those  out  in  the  alley  in 
a  pile,  and  by  and  by  I  will  take-  them 
away." 

Rollo  liked  this  plan.  He  pulled  off  all  the 
green  pumpkins,  and  carried  them  out  by 
their  handles  to  the  alley,  where  he  laid  them 
in  a  row,  upon  one  side,  so  as  not  to  prevent 
the  wheelbarrow's  going  by.  He  brought 
them  out  pretty  easily,  for  most  of  them  were 
small  and  light. 

Then  he  went  to  work  at  the  vines.  He 
pulled  them  up  by  roots  and  dragged  them 
along,  and  crowded  them  down  compactly 
into  his  wheelbarrow ;  Jonas  being  busy  all 
the  time  cutting  down  his  cornstalks. 

Presently  Rollo  wanted  Jonas  to  tell  him  a 
story,  while  they  were  working  together. 

"Why,  I  don't  know,"  said  Jonas.  "I 
can't  think  of  any  story  very  well,  just  now, 
but  I  can  give  you  some  advice." 


75 


"Very  well,"  said  Rollo;  " give  me  some 
advice." 

"I  will  tell  you  my  old  schoolmaster's  six 
rules." 

"Your  old  schoolmaster!"  said  Rollo. 
"Who  was  he?" 

"  Oh,  he  was  an  old  man  that  I  used  to  go 
to  school  to.     He  hadn't  any  hair — he  was 
bald ;  and  so  he  wore  a  black  woollen  cap  " 
.     Rollo  laughed  at  this,  outright. 

"  Why,  what  a  funny  man,"  said  he. 

Jonas  smiled  a  little,  though  he  did  not 
seem  to  think  there  was  anything  so  very 
droll  in  wearing  a  black  cap. 

"And  he  had  six  rules,  did  he?"  said 
Rollo.  ' 

"Yes;  three  for  play  and  three  for  study. 
The  first  rule  for  study  was  this : 

1  What's  once  begun 
Must  always  be  done.' 

"You  see,  when  I  went  to  his  school," 
continued  Jonas,  "a  new  scholar  came  one 
day,  and  he  had  a  seat  pretty  near  me,  and 
the  master  wanted  him  to  copy  a  hymn  for -a 
specimen  of  his  writing.  The  boy  took  out 
a  piece  of  paper,  and  began  and  wrote  the 
title  of  his  hymn ;  but  his  pen  was  not  good, 
and  so  he  went  and  got  his  pen  mended,  and 


.76 


put  that  piece  of  paper  away  and  took  ano- 
ther, and  began  again. 

"  He  wrote  the  title  and  the  first  line,  and 
then,  instead  of  the  second,  he  began  to  write 
the  third,  by  mistake,  and  did  not  perceive  it 
until  he  had  got  half  through  the  wrong  line. 
When  he  found  it  out  he  looked  very  much 
vexed,  and  pushed  the  paper  away  and  took 
another,  and  began  once  more. 

"  This  time  he  had  not  got  more  than  half 
of  the  title  written  before  he  found  the  ink 
was  out  of  his  pen,  and  then  he  dipped  it  into 
his  inkstand  for  some  more.  But  he  dipped 
it  in  too  deep,  and,  just  as  he  had  got  the  pen 
over  the  paper,  down  fell  a  great  drop  of  ink, 
just  where  he  was  going  to  write  the  rest  of 
the  title. 

"  The  boy  looked  completely  in  despair  at 
this,   and   declared,    in   a   whisper,    that   he 

would  not  try  again But  why  don't  you  go 

on  with  your  work,  Rollo?"  said  Jonas,  inter- 
rupting his  story. 

For  Rollo  had  become  so  much  interested 
in  the  story,  that  he  had  stopped  before  Jonas, 
with  one  end  of  a  long  vine  in  his  hand,  the 
other  trailing  along  upon  the  ground,  and 
there  he  stood. 


ROLLO  S    VACATION.  77 

"Can't  you  hear  and  work  too?"  said 
Jonas. 

.  "Why,  yes,"  said  Rollo;  and  he  dragged 
the  vine  along. 

Then  Jonas  resumed  his  story. 

u  The  boy  waited  some  time,  with  his 
elbows  on  his  desk,  looking  around  the  school- 
room, and  at  last  seemed  to  get  over  his  vex- 
ation a  little,  and  determined  to  try  once, 
more.  So  he  laid  the  blotted  piece  away, 
with  the  others  which  he  had  spoiled,  and 
took  out  a  fresh  piece  of  paper,  which  was 
the  last  he  had,  and  began  once  more.  Just 
as  he  had  written  the  first  word,  the  master 
came  to  see  how  he  got  along. 

"'What,  only  one  word  yet!'  said  the 
master.  '  What  have  you  been  doing  all  this 
time?' 

"  '  Oh,  I  began  once  or  twice  hefore,  and 
spoiled  them,'  said  the  boy. 

"  '  Let  me  see,'  said  the  master. 

"  So  he  looked  at  the  papers  that  had  the 
mistakes  and  blots  upon  them. 

"  '  This  won't  do,'  said  he.  '  It's  contrary 
to  my  rule.     My  rule  is, 

What's  once  begun 
Must  always  be  done. 

"  'You  must  take  the  first  one  and  finish 

7* 


78  ROLLO'S    VACATION. 

that.     You  never  ought  to  throw  away  your 
work  and  begin  again.' 

"  'Why,  my  pen  was  not  good,'  said  the 
boy. 

"  'No  matter  for  that;  you  must  not  throw 
away  work  once  begun.  When  you  once 
begin  anything,  you  must  always  go  right 
through  it ;  or  else  you  will  get  in  the  habit 
of  being  discouraged  and  vexed  at  every  little 
failure,  and  your  whole  life  will  be  filled  up 
with  unfinished  undertakings.' 

"  So  he  made  him  finish  his  first  hymn  that 
day;  and  he  carried  the  others  away,  and 
made  him  finish  one  each  day  for  his  writing 
lesson,  until  they  were  all  done." 

Jonas  paused  when  he  had  ended  his  story, 
and  Rollo  presently  said  that  he  had  very 
often  spoiled  his  writings  and  began  over 
again. 

"  Well,  I  would  not  do  so  any  more,"  said 
Jonas,  "for  I  believe  it  is  a  bad  plan.  I 
have  tried  the  plan  of  finishing  things  when  I 
once  begin  them,  and  I  believe  my  old  master 
was  right." 

The  boys  were  then  still  a  few  minutes 
Rollo  was  thinking  of  the  story;  and  pre- 
sently he  asked  Jonas  for  another  rule. 
"  You  said  he  had  six  of  them." 


79 

"Yes,"  said  Jonas;  "three  for  study  and 
three  for  play." 

"  Tell  me  one  of  his  rules  for  play  next,'  ■ 
said  Rollo. 

"  Well,"  said  Jonas.     "  One  was  this : 

1  When  you've  done  your  play, 
Put  your  things  away.' 

Rollo  laughed  at  hearing  this  rule,  and 
asked  Jonas  if  all  his  old  master's  rules  were 
in  poetry. 

"  You  will  hear  by  and  by,  as  I  tell  them 
to  you,"  said  Jonas. 

"I  think  that  is  an  excellent  rule,"  said 
Rollo;  "for  boys  very  often  lose  their  play- 
things by  leaving  them  about,  when  they 
have  done  playing." 

i  "Yes,"  said  Jonas;  "so  our  master  said. 
He  had  places  for  all  our  playthings,  out  in 
the  entry,  and  always  made  us  put  them 
there.  He  told  us  a  story,  one  day,  of  a  boy 
that  used  to  make  a  great  deal  of  trouble  at 
home,  by  leaving  his  playthings  all  about  the 
house  and  yard.  One  afternoon  he  began  to 
cut  paper  in  the  parlor,  and  he  had  just  got 
the  floor  covered  with  images,  and  little  boats, 
and  paper  cuttings,  when  he  heard  the  voice 
of  another  boy  out  in  the  yard,  who  had 
come  to  play  with  him.    So  he  threw  down 


80  ROLLO'S    VACATION. 

the  scissors  and  ran  off,  leaving  the  parlor  in 
complete  confusion. 

"  Then  he  and  the  other  boy  sat  down  up- 
on the  front  steps,  and  took  out  their  knives 
and  began  to  make  whistles  out  of  some  wil- 
low shoots  which  the  boy  had  brought.  ^Thus 
they  covered  the  steps  with  litter,  and  then 
they  laid  down  their  knives  and  began  walk- 
ing about  the  yard,  whistling.  Thus  they 
strayed  away  and  left  their  knives,  and  all 
their  sticks  and  cuttings,  upon  the  steps,  and 
then  concluded  to  go  out  into  a  field  close  by 
and  build  a  fire  of  shavings.  They  carried 
out  the  shavings  in  a  small  wheelbarrow,  and 
one  boy  went  in  and  got  a  lantern,  while  the 
other  got  a  watering-pot  to  use  for  a  fire 
engine  ;  for  they  were  going  to  play  that  the 
fire  was  a  house  on  fire,  and  they  were  going 
to  put  it  out  with  the  fire  engine.  They 
played  at  this  a  little  while,  and,  at  length, 
when  they  got  tired,  they  went  away,  leaving 
the  lantern,  the  wheelbarrow  and  the  water- 
ing-pot around  there  on  the  grass." 

"Oh,  what  boys,"  said  Rollo.  "I  never 
leave  my  playthings  about  so." 

"Not  generally,"  said  Jonas;  "but  you 
leave  them  sometimes." 

"  No  I  don't,"  said  Rollo,  "  ever." 


.  81 

"Why,  there  is  your  jack-o'-lantern,'1  said 
Jonas;  "have  you  carried  that  in?" 

"  No,"  said  Rollo;  "but  that  is  not  finished 
yet." 

"  Then  you  have  broken  both  of  my  old 
master's  rules.  You  have  abandoned  your 
work  unfinished,  and  have  left  your  play- 
things out  instead  of  bringing  them  in." 

"  Oh,  but  he  did  not  mean,"  said  Rollo, 
"  that  we  must  finish  our  work  the  very  time 
we  begin  it;  we  can't  always  do  that." 

"No,"  said  Jonas;  " but  he  did  mean  that 
you  must  not  leave  it  just  because  you  are 
tired  of  it,  when  you  have  got  it  almost  done, 
-and  go  away  to  play  something  else." 

"  Well,"  said  Rollo,  "I  will  go  pretty  soon 
and  finish  digging  out  my  jack-o'-lantern." 

"You  had  better  go  now,"  said  Jonas. 

"  No,"  said  Rollo.  "  I  want  to  get  in  these 
vines  first." 

"Very'  well,"  said  Jonas;  "just  as  you 
please.  But  my  wheelbarrow  is  full  now  ;  I 
am  going  along  with  it  to  the  barn,  and  I  will 
be  back  in  a  few  minutes." 

"  Mine  is  almost  full  too,"  said  Rollo, 
"^and  I  believe  I  will  go  along  with  you." 

So  saying,  he  wheeled  his  barrow  along, 
following  Jonas,  who  went  up  the  alley  till 


82 

he  came  to  the  garden  gate.  They  passed 
through  the  gate  to  the  garden  yard,  and 
thence  out  into  the  large  yard,  where  Jonas 
had  been  sawing  the  wood. 

"  Rollo  ! — Rollo  ! — see  there  ! "  exclaimed 
Jonas,  as  soon  as  they  came  in  sight  of  the 
place. 

Rollo  looked  up  and  saw  a  great  red  cow, 
that  had  strayed  in  from  the  street,  eating  up 
his  jack-o'-lantern.  He  dropped  his  wheel- 
barrow, seized  a  stick,  and  ran  after  her, 
shoutin  g  out,  ' '  Wheh  there ! — wheh !  Hirrup ! 
Wheh  there!  Wheh  ! "  as  loud  and  fiercely  as 
he  could. 

The  cow  seized  another  large  mouthful, 
and,  vexed  at  being  interrupted  at  so  pleasant 
an  employment,  ran  off,  shaking  her  horns 
and  brandishing  her  tail.  Rollo  pursued  her 
with  all  his  speed;  but  she  escaped  out  at  the 
great  gate,  and  at  length  stopped  across  the 
road,  and  finished  eating  her  mouthful,  with 
an  attitude  and  look  of  the  utmost  tranquil- 
lity. 

"  The  ugly  old  cow,"  said  Rollo,  taking  up 
the  remains  of  his  jack-o'-lantern.  "Now 
my  jack-o'-lantern  is  all  spoilt.  I'll  get  some 
stones  and  stone  her;"  and  he  began  to  look 
about  eagerly  for  stones. 


"The  way  to  ask  a  favor."— p.  70. 


ROLLO'S    VACATION.  85 

"  Stone  who?"  said  Jonas,  coolly; — "the 
cow?" 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo;  "  that  ugly  old  cow.' 

"Why,  what  is  she  to  blame  for?"  said 
Jonas. 

.  "  To  blame ! "  said  Rollo.     «  Why,  she  has 
been  eating  up  my  jack-o'-lantern." 

"Yes;  but  do  you  suppose  she  knew  it 
was  your  jack-o'-lantern  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Rollo. 

"I  don't  think  she  knew  she  was  doing 
any  harm,"  said  Jonas.  "  Look  at  her  and 
see  how  innocent  she  looks."     . 

Rollo  turned  towards  the  cow.  She  stood 
across  the  road,  quiet  and  still,  chewing  her 
cud  and  looking  into  vacancy.  She  did  look 
very  innocent  indeed. 

"  I  don't  think  the  cvw  is  to  blame,"  said 
Jonas ;  "  but  I  can  tell  you  who  was." 

"Who?"  said  Rollo. 

"  Somebody  that  let  her  get  at  your  jack- 
o'-lantern.  If  you  stone  anybody,  you  had 
better  stone  him,  if  you  can  catch  him." 

"Who  was  it?"  said  Rollo. 

"  The  boy  that  left  the  jack-o'-lantern  on 
the  log." 

Jonas  had  kept  very  sober  thus  far,  but 
now  he  burst  into  a  laugh;  and  Rollo,  per- 
8 


86 


ceiving  that  he  was  laughing  at  him,  turned 
away  in  great  trouble. 

Jonas,  however,  did  not  wish  to  tease  him; 
and  so  he  told  him  not  to  mind  the  loss  of  his 
jack-o'-lantern,  for  he  would  make  him  a  bet- 
ter one  that  evening.  He  said,  also,  that  as 
he  had  done  the  poor  innocent  cow  some 
injustice  by  his  harsh  accusations,  perhaps  he 
had  better  go  and  let  her  finish  the  jack-o'- 
lantern  now  she  had  begun  it. 

"  And,  Rollo,"  said  he,  "I  think,  if  my  old 
master  had  known  of  this  case,  he  would 
have  made  a  good  story  out  of  it,  to  illustrate 
his  rule  about  putting  playthings  away." 

Rollo  stood  still  a  moment,  thinking,  and 
then  he  went  out  to  the  road  to  carry  the 
remains  of  his  jack-o'-lantern  to  the  cow. 
He  stood  at  the  gate  and  tossed  it  out  to  her. 
She  came  half  across  the  road  to  eat  it,  with 
a  countenance  expressive  of  great  unconcern. 
In  fact,  she  received  his  favors  as  coolly  as 
she  had  borne  his  reproofs. 


ROLLo's   VACATION.  87 


JULIUS  AGAIN. 

.  A  short  time  after  this,  Jonas  told  Rollo 
that  it  was  time  for  him  to  go  after  the  cows, 
and  he  might  do  just  as  he  pleased  about 
going  with  him.  Rollo  said  he  should  like 
to  go,  and  Jonas  recommended  that  he  should 
first  go  and  ask  his  mother  if  she  was  willing. 

They  walked  along  together  through  the 
green  lane  which  has  often  been  mentioned 
in  these  stories,  Rollo  flourishing  the  whip, 
which  he  had  got  from  its  nail  just  before 
Jonas  set  out. 

From  the  end  of  the  green  lane  the  -boys 
entered  the  woods  by  a  sort  of  cow  path, 
which  they  followed  along,  until  they  came 
to  the  great  brook  where  Rollo  used  to  sail 
on  his  raft  in  old  times.  This  brook  was 
much  larger  than  the  one  behind  the  house 
where  Henry  lived.  It  was  pretty  deep  too, 
especially  in  some  places;  and  Rollo's  parents 
were  unwilling  to  have  him  come  to  it  alone. 

"  Jonas,"  said  Rollo,  as  soon  as  they  came 
pretty  near  to  the  brook,  "wasn't  it  some- 
where here  that  I  built  my  wigwam  ?" 


"  Yes,"  said  Jonas ;  "  it  was  over  there  by 
that  oak  tree." 

"  Did  you  ever  see  an  Indian,  Jonas — a  real 
Indian?" 

"Yes,"  said  Jonas;  "I  saw  one  once." 

"  Where  was  he?"  said  Rollo. 

"  Oh,  he  was  walking  along  in  the  streets 
of  the  town  I  lived  in." 

"  What  did  he  come  there  for  ?" 

"  He  wanted  to  sell  his  baskets." 

There  was  a  log  bridge  across  the  brook, 
and  Rollo  and  Jonas  walked  over. 

"Jonas,"  .said  Rollo,  "don't  you  wish  you 
were  an  Indian?" 

"No,"  said  Jonas,  very  quietly. 

"I  wish  I  was  an  Indian,"  said  Rollo. 

Jonas  asked  him  why. 

"Oh,  I  should  live  in  a  wigwam,  and  play 
in  the  woods  all  the  time." 

"  You  would  have  to  give  up  all  your  story- 
books." 

"Why?"  said  Rollo.  "Don't  Indians 
have  story-books?" 

"No,"  replied  Jonas,  "they  can't  make 
them;  and  if  they  should  make  them,  they 
could  not  read  them." 

"  Can't  Indians  read?"  said  Rollo. 

"No." 


89 


"  Why  not?" 

"They  have  no  schools  and  nobody  to 
teach  them.  If  you  lived  in  a  wigwam  and 
played  in  the  woods  all  day,  how  could  you 
expect  to  learn  ? 

"Besides,"  continued  Jonas,  "Indians  are 
poor,  ignorant  creatures,  and  have  no  time  to 
read." 

"  But  they  have  as  much  time,"  said  Rollo, 
11  as  other  people." 

"No,"  said  Jonas;  "they  have  to  work 
hard  all  day,  making  baskets  and  moccasins, 
to  get  enough  to  eat." 

"  Do  they  have  to  work  longer  than  other 
people?" 

"Yes,  because  they  are  so  ignorant.  The 
more  ignorant  people  are,  the  harder  they 
have  to  work  for  a  living." 

"Do  they?"  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,  to  be  sure,"  said  Jonas.  "  A  wood- 
cutter, who  only  knows  how  to  cut  wood,  has 
to  work  harder  than  a  carpenter,  who  knows 
how  to  build  houses." 

"Why,  when  the  carpenter  works  at  our 
house,  he  works  all  day." 

."  Then  he  gets  better  pay,  and  that  comes 
to  the  same  thing." 

The  boys  then  walked  along  silently  a  few 

d*  8% 


90 

minutes,  Rollo  snapping  off  the  tops  of  the 
bushes  with  his  whip. 

"  I  don't  think  doctors  have  to  work  very 
hard,"  said  Rollo.  "  I  should  like  to  be  a 
doctor,  and  get  all  my  money  just  for  riding 
about." 

"That's  because  they  know  so  much," 
said  Jonas.  "  They  know  all  about  sickness 
and  medicines,  and  when  anybody  is  sick 
they  know  what  will  cure  them ;  and  it  all 
shows  what  I  said,  that  the  more  a  man 
knows,  the  easier  he  gets  his  living.  And  so 
I  mean  to  learn  all  I  can." 

"Is  that  the  reason  why  my  father  makes 
me  learn?"  said  Rollo. 

"  I  think  it  probable,"  said  Jonas. 

"I  mean  to  ask  him,"  said  Rollo. 

The  boys  now  drew  near  to  the  pasture,  or 
rather  to  the  open  grass  ground,  beyond  the 
woods,  where  the  cows  were  usually  found. 
There  were  two  of  them,  and  one  had  a  bell 
fastened  to  her  neck  by  a  leather  strap.      .    : 

Jonas  listened,  trying  to  hear  the  bell. 

"  Hark !  Rollo,"  said  he. 

But  no  bell  was  to  be  heard. 

"  There  she  is,  Jonas,"  said  Rollo,  pointing 
down  into  a  valley,  to  a  little  clump  of 
bushes. 


91 

Jonas  looked  and  saw  that  the  bushes  were 
in  motion,  as  if  a  cow  or  something  else  was 
behind  them.  The  boys  ran  down  the  hill, 
and,  just  before  they  reached  the  spot,  a  boy, 
considerably  larger  than  Rollo,  but  smaller 
than  Jonas,  made  his  appearance.  Jonas  and 
Rollo  stopped. 

In  a  minute  or  two  another  and  much 
smaller  boy  appeared  from  among  the  bushes. 
He  had  a  handkerchief  tied  round  his  head, 
his  cap  being  crowded  down  over  it. 

At  first  Rollo  did  not  know  him,  but  in  a 
moment  he  saw  that  it  was  Julius. 

"Why,  Julius,"  said  Rollo,  "is  that  you? 
What  is  the  matter  with  your  head?" 

Julius  turned  away,  looking  rather  ashamed, 
but  did  not  answer. 

"  He  got  a  black  eye  training  day,"  said 
the  other  boy,  laughing. 

Rollo  pitied  Julius,  and  began  to  ask  him 
about  it;  but  he  seemed  very  little  inclined  to 
say  anything  about  his  misfortunes.  He  had, 
in  fact,  brought  them  upon  himself,  and  con- 
sequently felt  guilty  and  ashamed. 

"  Do  you  think  you  shall  be  well  enough 
to  come  to  school  when  the  vacation  is  over?" 
said  Rollo,  in  a  sympathizing  tone. 

"  I  hope  not,"  said  Julius.   "  I  hate  school." 


92  hollo's  vacation. 

"Why,  if  you  don't  go  to  school,"  said 
Rollo,  "  you  can't  learn  anything."* 

"  I  don't  care,"  said  Julius ;  "  I  don't  want 
to  learn." 

"Then  you'll  have  to  do  hard  work  all 
day  for  a  living,"  said  Rollo,  "as  long  as 
you  live." 

Julius  heard  this  speech  with  his  usual  sul- 
len look ;  but  the  other  boy  burst  into  a  loud 
fit  of  laughter,  and,  turning  round,  began  to 
walk  away.  Rollo  looked  at  him  with  sur- 
prise, wondering  what  he  was  laughing  at, 
and  said, 

"You  need  not  laugh,  for  he  will,  won't 
he,  Jonas?" 

Jonas  did  not  answer,  and  Julius  and  his 
companion  walked  away. 

The  boys  then  went  on  after  their  cows, 
through  grove  and  glen.  At  last  Jonas  heard 
a  distant  tinkling,  and,  following  the  sound, 
they  at  length  came  in  sight  of  the  cows, 
browsing  just  at  the  edge  of  a  thin  copse  of 
trees. 

They  drove  them  along,  Jonas  and  Rollo 
following.  The  cows  knew  the  way  home, 
and  went  on  very  regularly  and  quietly,  trie 
boys  walking  on  behind,  talking  on  various, 
subjects.    At  length  the  cows  went  into  the 


93 


barn-yard,  and  Jonas  secured  them  there  by 
putting  up  the  bars.  Rollo  went  in  to  his 
supper. 

The  table  was  set,  but  supper  appeared  to 
be  not  quite  ready.  Rollo  saw  that  his  father 
was  sitting  in  an  arm-chair  in  the  front  entry, 
looking  out  at  the  setting  sun,  which  was  then 
just  going  down  behind  the  western  hills. 
Rollo  ran  and  got  his  little  chair,  and  came 
and  sat  down  by  his  side,  looking  up,  at  the 
same  time,  into  his  father's  face  with  a  smile. 

"Well,  Rollo,"  said  his  father,  putting  his 
hand  upon  his  head,  "you  have  been  very 
still  this  last  hour." 

"Oh,  father,"  said  Rollo,  "I  have  been 
away  with  Jonas,  after  the  cows." 

"  Ah,  have  you  ?"  said  his  father.  "  Well, 
did  you  have  a  good  walk?" 

"Yes,  sir;  and,  father,  Jonas  says  that  the 
more  anybody  knows,  the  more  money  he 
can  earn.     Is  that  true?" 

"Why,  yes,"  said  his  father,  "in  the  gene- 
ral." 

"What  do  you  mean  by  lin  the  gene- 
ral?'" 

"Why,  that  it  is  very  often  so,  but  not 
always.  For  example,  suppose  there  was  a 
tract  of  land  to  be  surveyed,  or  a  new  road  to 


94 


be  laid  out;  we  should  have  to  hire  several 
men ;  for  instance,  a  surveyor,  a  chain-man, 
and  a  laborer.  The  surveyor  must  have  a 
good  deal  of  knowledge.  He  must  have  stu- 
died mathematics,  so  as  to  know  how  to  cal- 
culate, and  he  must  be  acquainted  with  books 
of  surveying,  and  with  the  compass  and  the 
theodolite." 

"  What  is  a  theodolite?"  said  Rollo. 

"  Oh,  it  is  a  very  curious  instrument,  made 
of  bright  brass ;  and  it  stands  on  three  legs. 
The  surveyor  takes  it  out  into  a  field,  and 
measures  by  it." 

"  But  I  don't  see  why  he  need  have  any 
theodolite,"  said  Rollo.  "Why  can't  he  mea- 
sure right  along  on  the  ground,  with  a  pole, 
as  you  do  in  the  garden?" 

"Why,  suppose  there  was  a  high  moun- 
tain, all  covered  with  rocks  and  precipices; 
do  you  think  he  could  find  out  how  high  it 
is  by  measuring  along  with  a  pole?" 

"  Why,  no,"  said  Rollo.  "  Could  he  do  it 
with  a  theodolite?" 

"  Yes,"  said  his  father,  "  with  a  theodolite 
and  some  calculation  afterwards." 

"  But,  then,  there  might  not  be  any  moun- 
tain in  the  way  of  the  road,"  said  Rollo. 

"  No ;  but  then  there  is  some  measuring  to 


95 

be  done  like  that,  though  not  always  for 
mountains;  and  a  surveyor,  if  he  did  not  have 
a  theodolite,  must  at  least  have  some  similar 
instruments.  So  that  you  see  the  surveyor 
must  know  a  great  deal  more  than  it  is  neces- 
sary for  the  chain-man  to  know." 

"  What  does  the  chain-man  do?" 

"Why,  when  they  measure  along  the  side 
of  a  field,  they  have  a  chain  to  measure  with, 
and  one  man  takes  hold  of  one  end,  and  ano- 
ther man  takes  hold  of  the  other  end.  Now 
it  requires  some  care  and  skill  to  measure 
correctly  with  a  chain,  for  a  long  distance,  on 
smooth  ground  and  rough,  up  hill  and  down. 
So  the  chain-man,  who  has  the  forward  end 
of  the  chain,  must  he  an  intelligent,  careful, 
and  active-minded  man.  It  is  not  necessary 
for  him  to  know  as  much  as  the  surveyor 
does,  hut  he  must  know  more  than  the 
laborer." 

"Why,  what  does  the  laborer  do?"  said 
Rollo. 

"  Why,  he  comes  along  with  the  end  of  the 
chain,  and  puts  it  exactly  where  the  chain- 
man  has  made  the  mark.  Then  he  makes 
the  stakes,  and  drives  them  down ;  and  he 
cuts  down  bushes,  and  carries  the  instru- 
ments, and  does  all  such  things.    In  fact,  he 


96 


has  harder  work  than  either  of  the  others; 
but  he  does  not  have  nearly  as  much  pay." 

"  How  much  pay  does  he  have?" 

"  Oh,  about  a  dollar  a  day," 

"And  how  much  does  the  chain-man 
have  V\ 

'  About  two  dollars." 

"And  the  surveyor?" 

"  A  good  surveyor  has  five  dollars." 

"  Then  I  should  rather  be  the  surveyor," 
said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  his  father;  "  his  place  is  most 
desirable  on  several  accounts." 

"What  accounts?"  said  Rollo. 

"Why,  first,"  replied  his  father,  "his  work 
is  not  so  hard.  He  only  has  to  adjust  the 
instrument  and  make  the  observations,  and 
put  down  his  notes  and  memoranda,  and 
make  his  calculations.  All  that  is  a  great 
deal  easier,  if  a  man  really  understands  it, 
than  making  and  driving  stakes,  and  cutting 
down  bushes,  and  carrying  the  chain  over 
rough  ground,  and  up  and  down  steep  hills, 
and  across  bogs  and  morasses." 

"But,  father,"  said  Rollo,  "I  think  it  is 
easy  to  drive  stakes." 

"  Yes,  such  little  stakes  as  you  drive,  and 
only  for  a  few  minutes;  but  to  follow  such 


hollo's  vacation.  97 

work  all  day  long,  steadily,  and  for  many 
days  in  succession,  is  hard.  And  then  the 
surveyor's  employment  is  better  on  another 
account ;  his  work  is  more  pleasant  in  itself 
than  a  laborer's."     ■ 

"Why?"  saidRollo. 

"Oh,  there  is  a  kind  of  interest  and  satis- 
faction in  knowledge,  and  in  doing  things 
that  require  knowledge  and  skill.  When  a 
surveyor  gets  a  new  and  more  accurate  instru- 
ment, he  is  very  much  interested  in  looking 
at  it,  and  in  understanding  the  principles  on 
which  it  is  made,  and  in  trying  it." 

"  So  I  should  think  the  other  man  would," 
said  Rollo,  "  when  he  gets  a  new  axe." 

"He  does  in  a  degree.  But  the  more  com- 
plicated and  valuable  the  instrument,  and  the 
higher  the  knowledge  and  skill  required  for 
the  use  of  it,  the  greater  is  the  pleasure  it 
affords.  Then,  besides  all  this,  he  has  better 
pay ;  and  so  he  can  live  in  a  more  comfort- 
able house,  and  educate  his  children  better, 
and  have  more  books  to  read,  and  travel 
more.  And  just  so  it  is  in  all  branches  of 
business.  Those  who  have  the  most  exten- 
sive knowledge,  have,  generally,  the  lightest 
work,  and  yet  the  best  pay." 
e  9 


98 


"Then,  father,"  said  Rollo,  lll  should 
think  that  everybody  would  want  to  learn." 

"Almost  all  people  do  wish  they  knew 
more,  when  they  have  grown  up.  But  then 
it  is  too  late  to  learn ;  they  have  not  time  nor 
opportunities." 

"But  they  might  learn  when  they  were 
children." 

"  Why,  some  children  are  too  poor.  Their 
parents  cannot  send  them  to  school.  Or  if 
they  do  send  them,  when  they  are  very  young, 
to  schools  where  they  learn  just  to  read  and 
write  and  cypher,  they  cannot  afford  after- 
wards to  send  them  to  higher  seminaries, 
where  they  would  study  higher  branches  of 
knowledge.  As  soon  as  they  get  big  enough, 
they  want  them  to  work.  Then  there  are  a 
great  many  other  boys  that  don't  like  to 
study,  and  their  fathers  have  not  decision  and 
energy  enough  to  make  them.  They  let 
them  have  their  own  way,  and  so  they  grow 
up  idle  and  ignorant,  and  finally  sink  to  low 
places  and  employments  in  future  life." 

At  this  time,  it  happened  that  a  man  came 
walking  along  the  street,  dressed  in  poor 
clothes,  and  looking  very  anxious  and  cross. 
As  Rollo  sat  near  the  door  he  saw  him  com- 
ing along  towards  the  house.     Rollo  asked 


99 


his  father  if  he  knew  who  it  was;  but  before 
he  could  receive  any  answer,  the  man  came 
up  to  the  gate,  before  the  door,  and  said, 

"  How  do  you  do,  sir  ]  I  came  to  see  if  my 
Julius  had  heen  here  this  afternoon." 

•'Julius?  I  don't  know,"  replied  Rollo's 
father ;  and  then,  turning  to  Rollo,  he  said, 
"  Have  you -seen  anything  of  him,  Rollo?" 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Rollo.  "  I  saw  him  up  in 
the  pasture." 

"When?"  asked  the  man,  angrily. 

"Oh,  a  little  while  ago,  when  I  went  up 
with  Jonas  after  the  cows.  He  and  another 
boy  were  there  together." 

"  What  boy  was  it?"  said  the  man,  in  the 
same  sharp  and  angry  tone. 

•"  I  don't  know  who  it  was,"  said  Rollo. 

The  man  paused,  turned  round,  took  off 
his  hat  and  rubbed  his  forehead,  which  was 
wrinkled  with  care.  In  a  moment  he  turned 
suddenly  round  to  Rollo,  saying, 

"And  what  was  he  doing  up  there,  I 
should  like  to  know?" 

"I  don't  know,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Robbing  birds'  nests,  I'll  warrant,"  said 
the  man;  who,  as  Rollo  by  this  time  sup- 
posed, was  Julius's  father.  "I  set  him  at 
work,  and  he  ran  off  and  has  been  gone  all 


100  ROLLo's    VACATION. 

the  afternoon.  When  I  catch  him,  I'll  whip 
him  as  long  as  he  can  stand." 

So  saying,  the  man  shook  his  head  in  a 
threatening  manner,  and  walked  away. 

"What  a  boy,"  thought  Rollo,  after  he  had 
gone. 

"What  a  man,"  thought  Rollo's  father. 

In  the  mean  time,  Julius  had  gone  slowly 
down  from  the  pasture  into  the  village,  and, 
turning  into  a  narrow  street,  came  to  a  small 
house  near  a  carpenter's  shop,  which  was  his 
home.  When  he  went  in,  his  mother  told 
him  how  angry  his  father  had  been  with  him 
for  going  off  and  leaving  his  work,  and  that 
he  had  gone  in  pursuit  of  him.  Julius  did 
not  answer,  but  sat  down  to  eat  his  supper, 
which  consisted  of  bread  and  milk.  When 
he  had  got  nearly  to  the  bottom  of  his  bowl, 
his  mother  observed  that  he  suddenly  started 
up  and  ran  out  at  the  back  door.  She  knew 
at  once  that  it  was  because  he  saw  his  father 
coming ;  and  she  looked  out  of  the  window, 
near  which  he  had  been  sitting,  and  she  saw 
that  he  was  coming  along  the  road.  Julius 
did  not  come  in  again  for  some  time ;  but  at 
last,  after  it  was  dark,  he  crept  slyly  in  and 
went  to  bed.     He  thought  if  he  could  escape 


ROLLo's   VACATION.  101 

that  night,  he  should  not  be  punished  the 
next  morning ;  for  his  father  was  not  faithful 
in  fulfilling  either  his  promises  or  his  threat- 
enings.  And  this  was,  in  fact,  one  cause  of 
Julius's  bad  character. 

In  the  mean  time,  while  Julius  was  lurking 
about  the  house,  watching  for  an  opportunity 
to  steal  into  bed,  Rollo  sat  down  to  a  good 
supper  with  his  father  and  mother. 

"Well,  Rollo,"  said  his  mother,  "you  have 
had  another  day  of  vacation." 

"Yes,  mother;  and  I  have  had  a  capital 
time.     I  have  been  at  work  with  Jonas." 

"What  have  you  been  doing?" 

"Oh,  I  have  been  getting  in  the  pumpkins 
and  the  pumpkin  vines ;  and  then  I  studied 
some  time  this  forenoon.  Just  before  tea,  I 
went  with  Jonas  up  into  the  pasture." 

"  That  is  where  you  saw  Julius,"  said  his 
father.     "  What  sort  of  a  boy  is  he,  Rollo  V? 

"Oh,  I  don't  think  he  is  a  very  good  boy," 
said  Rollo.  "  He  troubles  Miss  Mary,  and  he 
does  not  learn  much.  I  told  him,  up  in  the 
pasture,  he  would  have  to  work  very  hard 
when  he  grew  up,  and  he  only  laughed  at 
me." 

"Such  boys  do   not   look   forward  very 
much,"  said  his  father. 
9*     • 


102 


"  There ! "  said  Rollo,  suddenly  recollecting 
himself;  "  Jonas  promised  to  make  me  a  ship 
this  evening.     I  must  go  and  ask  him." 

"Did  he,"  said  Rollo' s  mother,  "uncondi- 
tionally?" 

"What  do  you  mean  by  uncondition- 
ally?" 

"Why,  did  he  promise  positively?  or  was 
there  some  condition?" 

"  Oh,  he  said  he  would  make  me  a  ship  if 
I  did  not  have  a  good  time." 

"And  haven't  you  had  a  good  time?" 

"  Why — I  don't  know, — yes,  I  have  had  a 
pretty  good  time." 

"  You  told  me  you  had  had  a  capital  time," 
said  his  father.  "  Now  you  must  be  honest 
Don't  deny  the  truth  for  the  sake  of  a  ship." 

Rollo  looked  as  if  he  was  very  sorry  that 
he  had  had  a  good  time.  However,  he  con- 
cluded to  go  out  and  see  Jonas.  He  found 
him  just  shutting  up  the  barn. 

"  Jonas,"  said  Rollo,  "  now  can  you  make 
my  ship?" 

"Why,  did  I  promise  you  a  ship?" 

"Yes;  didn't  you?" 

"Was  not  there  some  condition  about  it?" 

"Yes,"    said    Rollo,    rather    reluctantly. 


hollo's  vacation.  103 

11  You  said  you  would  make  me  one  if  I  did 
not  have  a  good  time." 

"  And  haven't  you  had  a  good  time?" 

"Why,  yes,"  said  Rollo;  "but  then  I 
want  you  to  make  me  a  ship  very  much." 

"  Ah  ha  ! "  said  Jonas,  laughing;  "I  thought 
that  would  be  the  way.  Well,  I  think  I  will 
make  you  a  ship." 

As  he  said  this,  he  was  just  fastening  up  the 
great  barn  door ;  but  he  opened  it  again  and 
went  in,  and  began  to  look  around  among 
some  blocks  of  wood,  of  various  sizes,  under 
the  workbench,  for  suitable  ship-timber.  At 
length  he  found  a  piece,  about  six  inches 
long,  and  two  in  breadth  and  thickness.  It 
was  almost  dark,  but  still  he  put  it  upon  the 
bench  and  planed  it  smooth.  He  then  took 
down  a  chisel  and  two  gouges  of  different 
.sizes,  and  then  he  and  Rollo  went  in.  He 
told  Rollo  that  he  had  not  had  his  supper  yet, 
but  that  if  Rollo  would  come  out  after  his 
supper,  he  would  begin  his  ship  that  evening. 


104  hollo's  vacation. 


SHIP-BUILDING. 

Jonas  had  a  little  bench  at  which  he  used 
to  work,  at  the  kitchen  fire,  in  the  long  win- 
ter evenings.  He  took  the  idea  of  its  con- 
struction from  the  form  of  a  shoemaker's 
bench,  which  has,  as  I  suppose  all  children 
know,  a  seat  at  one  end  and  a  place  for  tools 
at  the  other.  Jonas  called  it  his  "  gunda- 
low"  for  what  reason  it  would  be  difficult  to 
say. 

It  was,  however,  a  very  convenient  thing, 
though  it  had  rather  a  barbarous  name.  As 
he  sat  upon  the  seat,  all  the  little  tools  which 
he  wanted  to  use  for  such  evening  work  were 
at  his  side.  There  were  files,  and  a  little 
saw,  and  compasses,  and  sand-paper,  and  a 
little  glue-pot,  and  nails  and  brads,  and  a 
small  hammer.  Then  underneath  were  one 
or  two  drawers,  in  which  Jonas  could  put 
away  his  tools  when  he  had  done  his  work. 
The  whole  establishment  was  not  very  heavy. 
He  could  take  it  up  easily  when  he  had  done, 
and  carry  it  out  into  the  back  room,  to  a  cor- 
ner, where  it  stood  safe  and  out  of  the  way 
when  it  was  not  in  use. 


ROLLO'S    VACATION.  105 

It  was  dark  enough  to  light  candles  about 
seven  o'clock  that  evening;  and  at  that  time 
Rollo  and  Jonas  came  in  from  the  hack  room, 
Rollo  having  hold  of  one  end  and  Jonas  the 
other  of  the  " gundaloio"  They  placed  it 
by  the  chimney  corner,  and  Jonas  took  his 
place  at  the  seat,  while  Rollo  went  and 
brought  his  cricket,  and  sat  down  by  his 
side. 

"  Now,"  said  Jonas,  as  he  took  out  his 
tools  and  the  block  of  wood,  "I  ought  to 
have  a  vice." 

"  A  vice?"  said  Rollo.     "What  is  that?" 

"Oh,  it  is  a  kind  of  thing  to  gripe  a  piece 
of  wood  or  iron,  and  hold  it  fast,  while  you 
work  upon  it." 

"Oh,  I  can  hold  the  ship  for  you,"  said 
Rollo. 

"  You  can't  hold  it  strong  enough.  I  want 
to  hollow  it  out  by  driving  a  chisel  into  it." 

"  Would  a  vice  hold  it  tight  enough?" 

"Yes;  it  screws  up  perfectly  tight,  and 
would  hold  it  firm  and  solid.  But  my  anvil 
will  do." 

So  Jonas  went  out  into  the  back  room 
again,  and  brought  in  what  he  called  his 
anvil.  It  was  a  pretty  heavy  block  of  wood, 
solid  and  square,  -  which  he  had  to   pound 


106 


upon.  He  had  several  ways  of  using  it. 
One  was  to  place  it  across  his  knees,  as  he 
sat  upon  his  seat.  Another  was  to  rest  one 
end  upon  the  hearth  before  him,  the  other 
coming  up  between  his  knees,  and  he  could 
pound  upon  that.  Then,  again,  he  used 
sometimes  to  put  it  at  his  side,  upon  a  part 
of  the  bench  where  he  had  reserved  just  room 
for  it.  In  either  of  these  cases  it  answered  a 
fine  purpose  whenever  he  had  any  hammer- 
ing to  do,  such  as  nailing  together  small 
work,  chiselling  holes  in  wood,  or  cracking 
nuts. 

"What  do  you  have  such  a  great,  heavy 
anvil  for?"  said  Rollo,  as  Jonas  came  in, 
bringing  his  block. 

"Oh,  it  must  be  solid  and  heavy,"  said 
Jonas,  "or  else  I  could  not  hammer  upon  it 
well.     It  would  shake  and  spring." 

Jonas  then  fixed  his  anvil  before  him  upon 
the  hearth,  with  the  end  up,  and  he  placed 
the  little  block  of  ship-  timber  upon  it.  Rollo 
then  held  the  little  block  steady  by  taking 
hold  of  the  two  ends,  and  then  Jonas  began 
hollowing  out  the  ship  by  his  chisel,  driving 
it  in  with  a  small  mallet,  which  he  took  out 
from  one  of  the  drawers  of  the  "  gnndalow." 

He  began  at  one  end  and  proceeded  regu- 


107 


larly  to  the  other,  taking  care  not  to  go  very- 
near  a  mark  which  he  had  made  first,  all 
around  the  upper  side  of  the  block,  in  the 
shape  of  the  cavity  which  he  was  going  to 
make.  The  bows  of  the  ship  were,  of  course, 
to  be  rounded  both  inside  and  out ;  and  this 
he  did  in  the  inside  by  the  gouges,  when  he 
had  chiselled  it  out  nearly  to  the  proper 
shape, 

"Why  do  you  dig  out  the  inside  before 
you  shape  the  outside,  Jonas?"  asked  Rollo, 
after  the  process  had  gone  on  for  some  time. 

"Oh,  because  if  I  should  shape  the  outside 
first  it  would  not  stand  steady  while  I  chisel 
it  out." 

"  Do  men  do  so  with  great  ships'?" 

"  Oh  no,"  said  Jonas ;  "  they  do  not  hollow 
out  great  ships  at  all ;  they  make  them  of 
timbers  and  planks." 

"How  can  they  make  them  so?"  said 
Rollo. 

"  Why,  first  they  lay  down  a  long  timber 
for  a  keel,  and  then  they  frame  upright 
pieces,  swelling  out  each  side  like  ribs ;  and 
then  they  put  on  the  planks." 

"  But,  Jonas,  how  do  they  keep  the  water 
out  while  they  are  building  it?" 

Perhaps  some  children,  ^rho  live  in  sea- 


108  hollo's  vacation. 

ports,  may  wonder  at  Rollo' s  ignorance  of 
ship-building,  as  shown  by  this  question. 
But  he  was  a  little  boy  still;  and  then,  though 
he  lived  not  very  far  from  a  sea-port,  he  had 
very  seldom  seen  any  ships,  and  had  never 
seen  one  built  or  launched. 

Jonas  smiled  at  this  question,  and  said,  in 
reply, 

"  Why,  Rollo,  they  don't  build  them  in  the 
water." 

"  How  do  they  build  them  then?" 

"On  the  shore,  close  to  the  water;  and 
then,  when  they  are  all  finished,  they  launch 
them." 

"How  do  they  launch  them ?"  said  Rollo. 

"  They  have  a  frame  of  timbers,  slanting 
down  from  the  ship  into  the  water,  and  then, 
when  they  are  all  ready,  they  knock  away 
the  after-block  and  let  her  slide  off  into  the 
water." 

Jonas  gave  Rollo  some  farther  information 
about  ships,  which  interested  him  very  much. 
While  they  were  talking  in  this  way,  it  sud- 
denly occurred  to  Rollo  that  it  would  be  a 
good  plan  to  go  and  get  some  apples  to  roast, 
while  Jonas  was  working  upon  the  ship. 

He  accordingly,  after  obtaining  leave  from 
his  mother,  got  the  girl,  who  was  then  just 


109 


finishing  the  putting  away  of  the  supper 
things,  to  give  him  a  light  and  a  plate,  and 
he  went  down  cellar  to  find  some  apples. 
There  was  a  closet  in  the  cellar  with  large 
shelves  in  it,  each  of  which  had  an  upright 
board  at  the  edge,  which,  with  the  shelf, 
formed  a  sort  of  bin.  These  were  filled  with 
apples  of  various  sizes  and  colors ;  and  Rollo 
selected  from  them  a  platefull  of  such  as  he 
supposed  would  be  best  to  roast.  These  he 
brought  up  stairs,  and  placed  them  in  a  semi- 
circle, between  the  andirons,  before  the  fire. 

The  name  of  the  girl  that  lived  at  Rollo's 
father's  at  this  time  was  Dorothy.  She 
finished  her  work,  set  back  her  table,  having 
brushed  up  the  hearth  before  Rollo  put  his 
apples  down,  and  then  brought  out  her  light- 
stand  before  the  other  corner  of  the  fire,  and 
sat  down  to  her  knitting.  Rollo,  who  was 
always  kind  and  attentive  both  to  Jonas  and 
Dorothy,  asked  her  if  she  did  not  want  a 
light. 

"No,"  said  Dorothy.  "I  am  only  knit- 
ting." 

"What  have  you  got  the  lightstand  oufc 
for  then?"  said  Rollo. 

"Oh,  this  is  my  little  work-table,"  said* 
10 


110 

she,  "  and  I  like  to  have  it  out.  It  is  a  kind 
of  company  for  me." 

There  was  no  place  for  a  light  upon  Jonas's 
bench,  but  he  had  no  difficulty  on  this  ac- 
count. The  lamp  he  used  was  put  into  an 
iron  candlestick,  which  had  a  sort  of  hook- 
like projection  on  one  side,  near  the  top, 
which  answered  to  hang  it  up  by,  upon  a 
nail  in  the  chimney-piece,  at  his  side.  The 
fire  also,  though  small,  for  it  was  not  at  a 
cold  season  of  the  year,  blazed  cheerfully, 
and  diffused  a  very  pleasant  light  over  the 
white  floor  and  throughout  the  room. 

"Jonas,"  said  Rollo,  at  length,  after  a 
pause,  "  could  I  have  a  launching  for  my 
ship?" 

"  Yes,  I  don't  know  but  you  can." 

"How  can  I  do  it?" 

Jonas  tried  to  think  of  some  way,  but  at 
last  he  said  he  did  not  think  that  so  small 
a  ship  could  be  launched  very  well.  He 
thought  that  Rollo  must  be  contented  with 
sailing  it. 

Then  there  was  another  pause  for  a  few 
minutes,  during  which  Jonas  finished  scoop- 
ing out  the  inside  of  the  vessel  and  smoothing 
it  completely.     He  took  great  pains  to  have 


Ill 


the  opposite  sides  exactly  alike,  and  to  make 
the  curve  at  the  bows  smooth  and  regular. 

After  having  thus  finished  the  inside,  he 
put  the  anvil  away,  and,  taking  out  a  sharp 
knife  from  the  drawer,  began  to  fashion  the 
outside.  He  marked  out  the  keel,  and  then 
proceeded  to  cut  away  the  wood  carefully  on 
each  side  of  it,  when  Rollo  suddenly  said, 

"Oh,  Jonas,  why  can't  you  tell  me  now 
about  the  rest  of  your  old  master's  rules?" 

"  Didn't  1  tell  you  all?"  asked  Jonas. 

"  No,"  replied  Rollo.  "  You  said  there 
were  six,  and  you  did  not  tell  me  but  two." 

"  I  can't  tell  you  the  rest  now  very  well," 
said  Jonas. 

As  he  said  this,  he  held  his  ship  out  before 
him,  looking  at  it  attentively  in  different 
directions. 

"  Then  tell  me  a  story,"  said  Rollo. 

Jonas  did  not  answer.  He  seemed  to  be 
planning  something  about  the  form  of  his  ship. 

"Jonas,"  repeated  Rollo,  "I  wish  you 
would  tell  me  a  story,  while  you  are  at  work 
and  our  apples  are  roasting." 

"  Why  no,"  said  Jonas ;  "  to  tell  the  truth, 
I  can't  do  two  things  at  a  time  very  well; 
that  is,  I  can't  tell  stories  while  I  am  planning 
a  ship." 


112 


"Do  you  have  to  plan  much V  asked 
Rollo. 

"  Why  no,  not  a  great  deal ;  but  still,  every 
minute  or  two  I  have  something  to  do,  enough 
to  prevent  my  getting  along  very  well  with  a 
story.  But  there's  Dorothy ;  she  will  tell  you 
a  story,  I  dare  say.  She  can  tell  beautiful 
stories." 

"  Well,"  said  Rollo,  looking  round.  "  Will 
you,  Dorothy?" 

"  Oh,  I  don't  know  any  stories,"  said  Doro- 
thy. 

"Oh  yes,  you  can  think  of  some,"  said 
Rollo,  going  towards  her.  "  Come,  do,"  he 
continued,  leaning  upon  her  lap  and  looking 
up  into  her  face,  "and  then  I  will  give  you 
one  of  my  apples  when  they  are  roasted." 

"That  is  a  fair  offer,"  said  Dorothy,  "at 
any  rate ;  but  let  me  see,  can't  I  make  a  bet- 
ter bargain  ? 

"I'll  tell  you  what,"  she  continued,  " Jo- 
nas, how  much  longer  are  you  going  to  work 
on  the  ship  to-night?" 

Jonas  looked  at  it,  thought  a  moment,  and 
then  said, 

"  Perhaps  an  hour." 

"  Well,  then,  Rollo,  if  you  will  go  and  get 
some  interesting  book  and  read  to  me  half  an 


113 

hour,  then  I  will  tell  you  a  story  for  the  other 
half." 

"  It  is  a  bargain,"  said  Rollo.  "  I'll  do  it. 
What  book  shall  I  take  ?" 

Dorothy  said  she  would  leave  it  to  him  to 
choose  the  book. 

"Well,"  said  Rollo,  "I  will  get  my  safety 
lamp." 

Now  Rollo's  safety  lamp  was  a  small  lamp, 
with  a  handle  at  the  side,  and  a  glass  chim- 
ney to  go  over  and  around  the  flame.  It  was 
not  like  a  chimney  in  form,  but  they  called  it 
a  chimney,  because  the  hot  air  and  vapors 
from  the  flame  passed  up  through  it,  like 
smoke  from  a  fire  up  a  common  chimney. 
This  glass  fitted  to  a  little  brass  circle  about 
the  wick  of  the  lamp,  and  was  fastened  to  its 
place  by  a  little  screw,  called  the  tightening 
screw. 

The  reason  why  Rollo  had  such  a  lamp  as 
this,  was,  that  it  was  often  convenient  for  his 
father  and  mother  to  send  him  up  stairs,  or 
about  the  house,  in  the  evening,  and  it  would 
not  do  for  him  to  take  a  common  lamp  for 
fear  of  his  setting  something  on  fire.  His 
father  thought  that  if  he  had  a  lamp  which 
would  be  safe  for  him  to  carry,  he  could  go 
of  errands  quite  often  for  them,  and  thus  save 
e  *  10* 


114 

them  trouble,  enough  to  repay  him  for  the 
cost  of  the  lamp. 

So  he  bought  him  this  lamp,  and  when  he 
brought  it  home  Dorothy  found  him  a  place 
to  keep  it  in,  on  a  low  shelf  in  a  little  closet, 
by  the  side  of  the  kitchen  fire,  where  he  could 
reach  it  at  any  time. 

He  then  made  a  number  of  long  and  very 
slender  lamp-lighters  to  keep  with  it,  so  that 
he  could  have  one  always  ready  when  he 
wanted  to  light  his  lamp.  He  made  them  of 
narrow  strips  of  paper,  folded  up  in  a  long 
and  slender  form.  Jonas  showed  him  how 
to  make  them. 

So  Rollo  opened  the  cupboard  door  and 
took  out  his  safety  lamp,  and  a  match  or 
lamp-lighter.  It  was  the  only  lamp-lighter 
there  was  left.  Rollo  brought  both  to  Doro- 
thy's lightstand,  unscrewed  the  tightening 
screw,  and  then  went  and  lighted  his  match 
at  Jonas' s  lamp. 

"  I  must  make  some  more  lamp-lighters," 
said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,  you  can  make  them  while  I  am  tell- 
ing you  your  story,"  said  Dorothy. 

"So  I  can,"  replied  Rollo. 

So  saying,  he  took  his  lamp  up  by  the  han- 


ROLLO'S   VACATION.  115 

die  and  went  up  the  kitchen  stairs,  to  get  a 
book  out  of  his  little  book-shelves. 

His  books  were  all  well  arranged  and  in 
good  order,  for  his  mother  was  very  strict  in 
requiring  him  always  to  put  away  his  books 
carefully  whenever  he  had  done  with  them. 

When  Rollo  opened  his  chamber  door,  he 
saw  a  bright  light  shining  upon  the  floor.  It 
was  the  moon  shining  in  at  the  window.  He 
looked  out  and  saw  the  yard,  and  the  garden 
and  the  trees  of  the  wood  beyond,  all  looking 
bright  and  distinct  on  all  the  sides  that  were 
turned  towards  the  moon,  and  throwing  broad 
black  shadows  along  the  ground  upon  the 
other  side.  Many  of  the  trees  in  the  woods 
beyond  the  garden  had  assumed  their  gay 
autumnal  colors, — brown,  orange,  and  red, 
intermingled  with  the  dark  green.  Rollo 
thought  they  looked  very  beautiful.  In  the 
yard,  too,  just  under  the  window,  he  saw  the 
yellow  cheeks  of  his  pumpkins,  looking  almost 
as  bright  as  they  did  by  day.  He  saw  no- 
thing in  motion  except  the  cat ;  she  was  walk- 
ing softly  and  slowly  across  an  alley  in  the 
garden. 

Rollo  looked  out  the  window  some  time, 
and  then  said  to  himself, 

"  The  moon  is  ripening  our  pumpkins." 


LI 6  HOLLO S    VACATION. 

Then,  in  a  moment  after, 

"I  wonder  if  the  moonlight  is  pretty  warm." 

So  saying,  he  set  down  his  lamp  upon  a 
table,  and  kneeled  down  and  spread  out  both 
his  hands  upon  the  bright  image  of  the  win- 
dow which  was  projected  upon  the  floor. 
The  palms  of  his  hands  were  down,  and  thus 
the  moonlight  shone  directly  upon  the  backs 
of  them.  He  held  them  so  for  some  seconds, 
and  at  length  said, 

11  Why,  the  moonlight  is  not  warm  at  all ! " 

He  then  happened  to  think  that  the  experi- 
ment would  be  a  fairer  one  if  he  should  put 
one  hand  in  the  moonlight  and  the  other  by 
the  side  of  it,  upon  a  part  of  the  floor  where 
the  moon  did  not  shine. 

He  accordingly  fixed  his  hands  in  this  way, 
and  then  shut  up  his  eyes,  in  order  to  think 
better  which  was  the  warmest. 

In  the  mean  time,  while  Rollo  was  thus 
employed,  Dorothy  began  to  wonder  why  he 
did  not  come  back. 

"  What  do  you  suppose  has  become  of 
Rollo?"  at  length  she  said,  to  Jonas. 

"■  1  don't  know,"  said  Jonas.  "  He  must 
come  down  pretty  soon,  or  his  apples  will 
burn." 


117 


"What  do  you  suppose  makes  him  gone 
so  long?"  said  Dorothy. 

"  Oh,  I  don't  know,"  said  Jonas.  "  He 
jias  got  engaged  in  reading  some  book,  I  sup- 
pose; and  there  he'll  sit  and  read  half  an 
hour,  likely  as  not.  That  is  the  way  with 
children  when  they  get  to  looking  over  books." 

"I  mean  to  creep  up  stairs  softly  and  see 
what  he  is  doing,"  said  Dorothy. 

So  Dorothy  rose  from  her  seat,  and,  carry- 
ing her  knitting  work  in  her  hand,  stole  softly 
up  stairs.  When  she  came  near  the  door  of 
the  room  where  Rollo  was,  which  was  partly 
open,  she  walked  very  softly  indeed,  and 
peeped  in ;  and  there,  to  her  utter  astonish- 
ment, she  saw  him  fixed  motionless  on  his 
hands  and  knees,  with  his  eyes  shut. 

"Why,  Rollo,"  said  she,  "what  are  you 
doing?" 

Rollo  started,  opened  his  eyes,  scrambled 
up,  looking  half  inclined  to  laugh  and  half 
inclined  to  be  ashamed,  and  said, 

"Oh,  1  forgot  my  book." 

And  he  took  up  his  light  and  went  to  work 
immediately,  looking  over  his  library. 

"But,  Rollo,"  said  Dorothy,  "what  could 
you  be  doing  on  the  floor  ?" 


118 


"Oh,"  said  he,  "I  was  only  seeing  how 
warm  the  moon  was." 

Dorothy  could  not  help  laughing  at  this 
idea,  but  she  went  in,  and  helped  Rollo  choose 
a  book.  They  then  went  together  down  to 
the  kitchen  again. 

"Well,  Jonas,"  said  Rollo,  "how  do  you 
get  along?" 

" Pretty  well,"  said  Jonas;  "but  you  had 
better  turn  your  apples." 

Rollo  looked  at  his  apples,  and  found  that 
they  were  done  half  through.  The  skin  of 
some  of  them  was  scorched,  and  the  pulp  of 
others  had  protruded,  and  lay  in  rounded 
heaps,  piled  up  against  those  sides  of  the 
apples  which  were  towards  the  fire. 

"Jonas,"  said  Rollo,  "what  makes  my 
apples  run  over  so?" 

"Run  over?  they  don't  run  over,"  said 
Jonas ;  "  they  run  out." 

"  Well,  what  makes  them  run  out?" 
"Why,  when  you  put  the  apples  down 
they  get  heated  inside,  and  the  juice  boils 
and  turns  into  steam,  and  then  bursts  a  hole 
through  the  skin,  like  a  steam  boiler  burst- 
ing." 

"Is  that  the  way  a  steam  boiler  bursts?" 
said  Rollo. 


119 

"  Yes ;  the  ste.am  gets  pent  up,  and  swells 
by  the  heat,  and  then  by  and  by  it  breaks 
away,  tearing  everything  to  pieces." 

Rollo  stood  looking  at  his  apples.  He 
recollected  that  he  had  often  observed,  when 
he  had  put  apples  down  to  the  fire,  that  they 
swelled  out  a  little  on  the  side  towards  the 
fire,  and  looked  smooth  and  glossy;  and  then 
soon  puff'  went  the  skin,  with  a  little  explo- 
sion, and  a  jet  of  steam  poured  out  towards 
the  fire. 

After  standing  in  a  thoughtful  attitude  a 
few  minutes,  Rollo  said, 

*  But,  Jonas,  I  don't  see  that  that  explains 
why  the  inside  of  the  apple  comes  out  too." 

"  Why,  there  is  more  juice  away  in  the 
middle  of  the  apple,  and  that  gets  turned  into 
steam,  and  swells  and  crowds  by  the  heat, 
and  so  crowds  the  soft  apple  out." 

"Is  that  the  way?"  said  Rollo. 

"Yes,"  replied  Jonas.  "There,"  he  con- 
tinued, holding  up  his  ship,  "how  will  that 
do?" 

Rollo  looked,  and  found  that  Jonas  had  got 
it  shaped,  inside  and  out;  and  it  was  now 
of  really  a  handsome  form.  Rollo  was  very 
much  pleased  with  it,  and  asked  Jonas  what 
he  was  going  to  do  next. 


120  EOLLO'S   VACATION. 

if  Next  I  shall  make  the  masts,"  said  Jonas, 
"  and  then  the  deck." 

In  the  mean  time  Rollo  turned  his  apples, 
and  then  sat  down  and  opened  his  book  and 
prepared  to  read.  Just  before  he  began,  how- 
ever, he  thought  once  more  of  Jonas's  expla- 
nation of  the  apple  roasting,  and  asked  him 
if  the  bursting  out  of  parched  corn  was  from 
the  same  reason. 

w  I  don't  know,"  said  Jonas,  "  about 
parched  corn.     I  never  thought  of  that." 

"/  should  think  it  was  the  same  reason," 
said  Rollo. 

"  Why — not  exactly,"  said  Jonas.  "  That 
seems  to  be  a  different  thing." 

"No,"  said  Rollo.  "The  corn,  you  see, 
turns  inside  out,  just  like  my  apples." 

"Not  exactly;  because  the  apple  comes 
out  slowly,  as  it  gets  heated  through  by  de- 
grees, but  the  corn  snaps  out  all  at  once.  It 
is  only  one  crack,  and  it  is  all  inside  out  in 
an  instant." 

"  Oh,  that  is  only  because  it  is  so  little.  A 
kernel  of  corn  is  no  bigger  than  the  end  of  my 
ringer,"  said  Rollo  ;  "  nor  so  big  either,"  he 
continued,  looking  at  the  end  of  his  finger, 
and  mentally  comparing  it  with  the  size  of  a 
kernel  of  corn.     "It  is  so  little,  you  see, 


121 

Jonas,  that  it  heats  right  through  in  an 
instant." 

"No,"  said  Jonas,  "I  don't  think  that 
explains  it.  Besides,  the  corn  is  dry  inside, 
and  hard,  but  the  apple  is  juicy  and  soft." 

"  I  mean  to  go  and  ask  my  father  about 
it,"  said  Rollo,  jumping  up  and  putting  down 
his  book  upon  the  cricket. 

And!  away  he  was  going  as  fast  as  he 
could,  but  before  he  got  to  the  door  Dorothy 
called  out  to  him, 

"  But  here,  Rollo,"  said  she  j  "  I  thought 
you  agreed  to  read  to  me." 

"  But  I  only  just  want  to  go  and  ask  my 
father  about  parching  corn." 

"  Yes ;  but  you  promised  to  read  to  me  the 
first  half  hour,  and  I  was  to  tell  you  a  story 
the  last  half,  and  now  the  half  hour  for  my 
reading  is  almost  gone  already." 

"Why,  Dorothy!"  said  Rollo,  with  sur- 
prise. He  had  no  idea  that  the  time  had 
passed  away  so  rapidly. 

"It  has,"  said  Dorothy,  "and  of  course,  as 
you  have  not  kept  your  part  of  the  agreement, 
I  am  released  from  mine." 

"And  a'n't  you  going  to  tell  me  any  story?" 
said  Rollo. 

It  was  a  great  disappointment  to  Rollo  to 

/      n  . 


122 


ROLLO'S  VACATION 


lose  his  story,  as  he  now  thought  he  should, 
and  he  was  just  upon  the  point  of  bursting 
into  tears,  but  Dorothy  said,, 

"  I  did  not  say  I  should  not  tell  you  one, 
but  only  that  I  am  not  bound  to  do  it  by  my 
promise." 

u  Well,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  will  begin  to  read 
this  moment;"  and  he  sat  down  upon  his 
cricket  and  opened  his  book  in  earnest.  He 
read  a  short  time,  and  then  Dorothy  said  he 
need  not  read  any  more. 

He  accordingly  put  away  his  book,  and 
then  sat  down  upon  his  cricket  before  Doro- 
thy, and  she  began  as  follows. 


hollo's  vacation.  123 


DOROTHY'S   STORY. 

"Well,  Rollo,"  said  Dorothy,  " shall  I 
tell  you  a  true  story,  or  one  that  is  not 
true?" 

"Oh,  true,"  said  Rollo;  "true,  by  all 
means." 

"  But  true  stories  are  not  generally  quite  so 
interesting  as  those  that  are  made  up." 

"Why  not?"  said  Rollo. 

"Oh,  because,  "when  people  are  making  up 
a  story,  they  can  tell  more  wonderful  things 
than  those  that  happen  in  true  stories." 

Rollo  paused  a  moment,  and  then  said, 

"I  think,  on  the  whole,  Dorothy,  I  would 
rather  have  it  true." 

"  Yery  well,"  said  Dorothy.  "  Let  me  see 
—what  shall  I  tell  you?" 

"  While  you  are  thinking,"  said  Rollo,  "  I 
will  go  and  get  some  paper  and  a  pair  of  scis- 
sors, and  then  I  can  be  making  some  lamp- 
lighters." 

In  a  few  minutes  Rollo  had  found  his  scis- 
sors and  paper,  and  had  seated  himself  on  his 
cricket,   where  he  could  conveniently  look 


124 


ROLLO  S    VACATION. 


either  towards  Dorothy  while  she  was  telling 
her  story,  or  towards  Jonas,  to  see  how  he 
went  on  with  his  ship ;  and  Dorothy,  who 
had  in  the  mean  time  decided  upon  her  sub- 
ject, thus  began : — 

"When  I  was  a  little  girl,  about  thirteen 
years  old,  I  lived  with  my  father  and  mother, 
and  my  little  brother  Oliver,  in  rather  a  lonely 
house  in  the  woods.  One  day,  in  the  winter, 
my  father  and  mother  went  away  in  the 
morning  to  another  town,  where  there  was  a 
store,  and  left  me  at  home  with  little  Oliver." 

"  How  big  was  he?"  said  Rollo.  - 

"  Not  quite  so  big  as  you." 

"Well,"  said  Rollo,  "goon." 

"  Father  and  mother  meant  to  have  come 
back  that  night ;  but  it  was  snowing  a  little 
before  they  went,  and  father  said  to  me,  just 
as  he  was  getting  into  the  sleigh, 

" '  Dorothy,'  said  he,  '  the  wind  is  dead 
north-east — perhaps  it  is  coming  on  to  blow ; 
and  it  may  be  all  blocked  up  under  the  Black 
Ridge  before  night.5 " 

"  What  did  he  mean  by  dead  north-east?" 
asked  Rollo. 

"Oh,  right  exactly  north-east,  where  all 
the  snow-storms  come  from." 


ROL'LO'S    VACATION.  125 

"What  makes  all  the  snow-storms  come 
from  there?"  asked  Rollo. 

"Oh,  I  don't  know,"  said  Dorothy,  "only 
they  do  j  and  then  the  north-east  winds  used 
to  blow  all  the  snow  right  into  a  long  piece 
of  road  which  ran  along  under  the  Black 
Ridge,  and  they  rilled  it  all  up,  sometimes, 
from  fence  to  fence,  level." 

"  Oh,  what  drifts  !"  said  Rollo. 

"  '  So,'  said  my  father,  '  if  anything  should 
happen  and  we  should  not  get  home,  don't  be 
frightened  about  us ;  and  take  good  care  of 
yourselves.' 

"So  Oliver  and  I  stayed  at  home.  I 
attended  to  my  spinning,  for  I  was  learning 
to  spin  then,  and  he  played  horses.  The 
snow  fell  thicker  and  thicker;  and  about 
noon  it  began  to  blow.  About  the  middle  of 
the  afternoon  I  went  out  to  get  some  water 
at  the  spring;  and  when  I  found  how  deep 
the  snow  was,  and  heard  the  wind  roaring 
and  whistling  through  the  woods,  I  gave  up, 
at  once,  all  idea  of  seeing  father  and  mother 
that  night." 

"And  then  did  you  have  to  stay  all 
alone?"  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes— Oliver  and  I."  , 

"I  should  not  have  dared  to,"  said  Rollo. 
11* 


126 


"  But  what  would  you  do  ?" 

"  Oh,  I  would  go  to  the  next  house." 

"  There  was  no  house  within  a  mile,"  said 
Dorothy;  "and  I  could  not  have  walked 
there  in  all  the  storm — much  less  could 
Oliver. 

"  No — we  had  to  stay,  and  so  I  got  supper. 
But  I  observed  that  Oliver  did  not  eat  much, 
and  after  supper,  instead  of  playing  about  as 
usual,  he  got  his  rolling-chair  up  to  the  fire, 
and—"  , 

"  His  rocking-chair  you  mean,"  said  Rollo. 

"  No — his  rolling-chair ;  he  never  had  any 
rocking-chair." 

"  What  was  his  rolling-chair?"  said  Rollo. 
I  never  heard  of  such  a  chair  as  that." 

"Why,  it  was  a  block,  which  father 
chopped  off  from  a  very  round,  smooth  log 
of  wood.  Father  made  the  ends  very  smooth 
for  him,  somehow  or  other,  and  then  it  served 
Oliver  for  a  seat.  In  fact,  it  made  a  very 
good  little  cricket  for  him." 

"What  did  he  call  it  his  rolling-chair  for?" 
said  Rollo. 

"  Oh,  because,"  said  Dorothy,  "  it  was  too 
heavy  to  take  up  and  carry  about ;  and  so, 
when  he  wanted  to  move  it,  he  used  to  tip  it 
over  upon  its  side,  and  then  he  could  roll  it 


127 


about  anywhere.  It  was  very  smooth  and 
round." 

"  How  did  they  make  it  so  smooth  ?" 

"Oh,  it  was  the  natural  bark.  It  was  a 
beech  log,  which  has  a  smooth  and  even 
bark,  and  it  would  roll  very  easily.  Well, 
as  I  was  saying,  Oliver  rolled  up  this  rolling- 
chair  to  the  fire,  and  sat  there  with  his  elbows 
upon  his  knees,  and  his  hands  out  to  the  fire, 
as  if  he  was  cold." 

"Why  did  not  you  have  more  fire?"  said 
Hollo. 

"  Oh,  there  was  a  great  blazing  fire  in  the 
fireplace,"  replied  Dorothy,  "and  the  room 
was  very  warm. 

"  '  Are  you  cold,  Oliver?'  said  I. 

"  '  Yes,  I  am  a  little  cold ;  but  I  can  warm 
me  very  soon  by  this  noble  good  fire.' 

M  I  went  on  clearing  away  the  supper-table, 
and  then  sat  down  to  my  knitting;  but  Oliver 
still  stayed  by  the  fire.  By  and  by  I  asked 
him  if  he  was  not  warm  yet. 

H  i  No,  not  quite,'  he  said. 

"I  observed,  too,  that  he  spoke  a  little 
hoarse,  and  in  an  altered  tone,  and  quicker 
than  usual ;  and  there  was  a  little  sort  of  a 
tremble  in  his  voice,  as  if  he  was  shivering  a 


128 


little.  I  thought  then  that  he  was  going  to 
be  sick." 

"  What  did  you  think  was  the  matter  with 
him?"  asked  Rollo. 

"  I  thought  he  was  going  to  have  a  fever." 

"  What  sort  of  a  sickness  is  a  fever?" 

"I  don't  know  exactly,"  said  Dorothy; 
"  only  I  know  what  some  of  the  signs  of  it 
are." 

11  What  are  they  ?"  said  Rollo. 

"Why,  when  persons  have  an  attack  of 
fever,  they  are  first  cold  and  shivery,  even  if 
the  room  is  warm.  Afterwards  they  grow 
hot,  and  their  flesh  is  dry  and  parched. 
Then  they  are  thirsty,  and  if  you  look  at 
their  tongue  you  find  it  is  covered  over  with 
something  white.  And  then  their  pulse  beats 
quick,  and  perhaps  their  head  aches;  and 
when  they  go  to  bed  they  toss  about  rest- 
lessly." 

"  Was  Oliver's  tongue  white  V1  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes.  I  went  to  him  and  asked  him  to 
show  me  his  tongue,  and  I  found  it  was  con- 
siderably coated  ;  and  then  I  felt  of  his  pulse 
at  his  wrist,  and  it  was  quick.  I  felt  of  mine, 
and  I  found  that  his  was  a  good  deal  quicker 
than  mine." 


129 

"How  did  you  know  all  about  the  signs 
of  fever?"  said  Rollo. 

"Oh,  I  had  a  fever  myself  once ;  and  I 
remembered  the  signs,  and  I  remembered 
what  they  did  for  me,  and  so  I  knew  what  to 
do  for  him. 

"  'So,'  said  I,  'Oliver,  you  are  sick,  and  I 
must  take  care  of  you.  I  will  make  you  up 
a  little  bed  down  here  by  the  fire.' " 

"  Where  was  the  bed  that  he  usually  slept 
in?"  asked  Rollo. 

"It  was  up  over  head,  in  a  kind  of  a  gar- 
ret ;  for  our  house  was  only  one  story  high, 
and.it  had  only  one  room  finished  off  down 
stairs,  and  that  was  the  room  where  we  were. 
My  father  and  mother  used  to  sleep  in  that, 
and  Oliver  and  I  up  in  the  loft.  We  used  to 
go  up  a  ladder." 

"Oh,  I  should  not  like  to  go  up  a  ladder  to 
go  to  bed."  said  Rollo. 

"  Why,  it  was  a  very  good  ladder.  And 
then  we  had  beautiful  soft  beds  up  there;  his 
was  in  one  corner  and  mine  in  another.  At 
least  we  liked  them.  They  were  straw  beds, 
but  we  had  never  slept  on  a  feather  bed. 

"  So  I  went  up  the  ladder  and  got  Oliver's 
bed,  and  tumbled  it  down  the  ladder,  into  the 
kitchen.     Then  I  got  his  bolster  and  coverlid, 


130 

and  fixed  him  up  a  beautiful  little  bed,  one 
side  of  the  fire.  Then  I  helped  him  undress, 
and  put  a  blanket  over  his  shoulders,  and  let 
him  sit  upon  his  little  rolling-chair,  while  I 
brought  some  warm  water  and  bathed  his 
feet.     He  liked  that  very  much  indeed." 

" Did  he?"  said  Rollo.  ^ 

"  Yes.  I  knew  he  would,  though  I  did  it 
principally  to  make  him  get  well.  It  is  very 
good  for  sickness. 

"I  wiped  his  feet  dry  and  let- him  warm 
them  by  the  fire,  and  then  he  got  into  bed 
and  I  covered  him  up  warm.  Then  I  went 
to  the  closet  to  get  him  some  medicine."  ■ 

"  How  did  you  know  what  kind  of  medi- 
cine to  give  him?"  asked  Rollo. 

"Oh,  we  only  had. one  kind  of  medicine, 
and  that  was  good  for  almost  any  sickness. 
I  put  a  little  sweetened  water  in  a  cup,  and 
then  poured  out  some  of  the  medicine  upon 
the  top  of  it,  and  carried  it  to  him.' 

"  Did  he  take  it?"  said  Rollo. 

"  At  first  he  did  not  want  to ;  but  pretty 
soon  he  opened  his  mouth  and  swallowed  it 
down,  though  it  tasted  pretty  bad." 

"  '  That's  a  good  boy,'  said  I;  and  then  I 
gave  him  a  drink  of  water  and  laid  him  down, 
and  covered  him  up  as  warm  as  I  could. 


131 

Then  I  felt  of  his  pulse,  and  I  found  it  was 
quicker  than  it  was  before,  and  his  cheeks 
looked  red,  and  felt  hot  and  dry,  and  he 
breathed  short  and  hard. 

"  Presently  he  said,  '  Dorothy,  how  long 
will  it  be  before  this  medicine  will  make  me 
get  well?' 

"  'Oh,  I  hope  it  will  make  you  feel  better 
about  the  middle  of  the  night,'  I  answered. 

u  Then  I  told  him  to  try  to  go  to  sleep,  and 
^  would  finish  my  work  and  then  go  to  bed 
myself. 

"  He  was  still  a  few  minutes;  but  by  and 
by  he  said, 

"'Dorothy!' 

"  'What?'  said  I;  and  I  went  to  the  side 
of  his  bed,  so  that  he  could  speak  to  me 
easier. 

"  'Don't  you  think  father  and  mother  will 
come  home  to-night?' 

"  I  told  him  I  would  go  to  the  window  and 
look  out.  I  went ;  and  the  snow  was  all  up 
on  the  glass  outside,  and  was  beating  against 
it  more  and  more. 

"  I  came  back  and  told  him  I  did  not  think 
they  would  come. 

"  He  did  not  answer,  but  turned  over  and 
shut  his  eyes.     I  knew  he  wanted  them  to 


132 

come  very  much,  but  he  was  a  good,  patient 
little  fellow,  and  would  not  complain. 

"  Presently  he  called  again, 

"<  Dorothy!' 

"I  went  towards  him,  and  found  he  was 
tossing  his  arms  out ;  and  he  said  he  was  too 
hot,  and  wanted  me  to  take  off  some  of  the 
clothes. 

"  '  No,  little  Oliver,'  I  said;  'you  must  keep 
the  clothes  on,  and  put  your  arms  down  into 
bed,  because  you  must  get  into  perspiration, 
and  then  you  will  feel  better.'  "     N 

4 -What  is  perspiration?"  said  Rollo. 

"  Why,  having  his  skin  moist,  instead  of 
dry  and  hot  as  it  was. 

"  Oliver  then  put  his  arms  down,  and  I 
covered  them  up  again,  and  then  I  told  him 
to  shut  up  his  eyes  and  go  to  sleep. 

"  So  he  shut  up  his  eyes  and  I  went  away. 
I  had  to  carry  some  things  out  in  the  back 
room,  and  was  out  there  arranging  them  a 
minute  or  two,  when  I  heard  him  calling  me 
again,  in  a  very  mild,  pleasant  voice. 

"'Dorothy!' 

"  I  ran  back  to  his  bedside  and  said, 

."•'What,  Oliver?' 

"  l  Will  you  give  me  some  water  to  drink  V  " 


ROLLO'S    VACATION.  133 

"Why,  you  did  give  him  some,"  said 
Rollo. 

"  Yes ;  but  when  persons  have  a  fever  they 
are  thirsty  almost  all  the  time.  I  brought 
him  some  water,  but  told  him  he  must  only 
taste  of  it,  for  it  would  hurt  him  to  drink 
much.  He  took  one  or  two  mouthfuls,  and 
then  laid  down  again. 

"  After  a  little  while  I  looked  at  him,  and 
found  he  was  asleep ;  but  he  did  not  seem  to 
sleep  sound  and  quietly.  He  breathed  quick 
and  hard,  and  his  cheeks  looked  red,  and  he 
moved  about  and  kept  getting  the  clothes  off, 
so  that  I  had  to  put  them  on  him  again  very 
often. 

"  But  at  last  he  became  rather  more  quiet, 
and  after  I  had  got  through  all  my  work  I 
put  some  large  logs  of  wood, — as  large  as  I 
could  lift,— on  the  fire,  and  then  undressed 
myself  and  went  to  bed  in  mother's  bed. 
But  I  could  not  go  to  sleep  very  easily;  for 
Oliver  breathed  so  short  and  hard  that  it 
frightened  me  a  little,  and,  besides,  I  felt 
rather  lonely;  for  the  storm  roared  very  loud 
all  around  the  house.  Presently  I  heard  Oli- 
ver moving.  I  looked  up  and  found  that  he 
had  got  some  of  the  clothes  off.  I  got  up  and 
12 


134 


spread  them  on  him,  and  then  I  went  to  bed 
again. 

"Pretty  soon  I  got  almost  to  sleep;  but 
Oliver  suddenly  stopped  breathing.  He  had 
been  breathing  so  loud  and  hard  that  his 
stopping  waked  me  up,  and  I  jumped  out  of 
bed  and  went  to  him.  He  was  lying  still, 
with  his  eyes  half  open,  but  they  looked  dull 
and  heavy.  I  found  he  was  breathing,  and 
as  short,  though  not  so  loud  and  heavily,  as 
before.     His  lips  were  moving. 

u  'Oliver!'  said  I,  in  a  soothing  voice; 
'Oliver!' 

"  But  he  did  not  answer.  His  lips  moved, 
and  he  was  muttering  something,  but  I  could 
not  understand  what  he  was  saying. 

"  'Oliver,'  said  I,  'do  you  want  anything?' 

"He  tossed  his  head  about  restlessly  and 
said, 

"  <  Take  it  off,  take  it  off,— I  don't  want 
to  go.' 

"  I  knew  by  that  that  he  was  only  dream- 
ing, and  so  I  moved  him  over  upon  his  other 
side,  and  fixed  his  pillow  and  covered  him 
up,  and  he  shut  his  eyes  and  went  to  sleep 
again.  I  put  my  hand  down  into  his  bosom 
to  see  if  his  skin  was  beginning  to  be  moist ; 
but  it  felt  as  hot  and  dry  as  before.    Then  I 


135 


went  back  to  bed  again.  He  kept  breathing 
short  and  hard,  and  the  logs  in  the  fire  sim- 
mered and  sung,  and  the  storm  beat  against 
the  windows ;  but  at  last  I  got  asleep. 

"  Some  time  after  this,  I  do  not  know  how 
long,  a  loud  blast  of  wind  rattling  against  the 
windows  woke  me  up.  I  started  up  and 
looked  towards  Oliver.  The  clothes  were 
partly  off  of  his  shoulders.  I  went  to  him, 
and  observed  that  he  was  breathing  more 
easily.  I  put  my  hand  into  his  bosom,  and 
felt  a  little  moisture  upon  his  side,  where  his 
arm  had  been  lying.  He  moved  his  head  and 
opened  his  eyes,  and  said,  faintly, 

"  '  Dorothy,  will  you  give  me  a  little  water 
to  drink  ?  ? 

"  'Why,  Oliver,'  I  said,  '  I  am  rather  afraid 
to  give  you  any  water  now.  You  are  getting 
into  perspiration,  and  I  am  afraid  cold  water 
will  hurt  you.' 

"  He  shut  up  his  eyes,  but  he  did  not  say  a 
word. 

"I  pitied  the  poor  little  fellow,  and,  after 
looking  at  him  a  moment,  I  said, 

li  l  Are  you  very  thirsty,  Oliver?' 

"  '  Yes,  I'm  pretty  thirsty.' 

"  '  Well,  you  lie  still  a  little  while  and  see 
if  you  can't  get  to  sleep.     If  you  can,  that 


136 


will  be  the  best ;  if  not,  then  I  will  come 
and  give  you  a  little  water.' 

u  So  I  went  and  laid  down  again.  I  wait- 
ed some  time,   and   then  I  began   to   grow 

sleepy. But,  Rollo,  1  think  your  apples  are 

done." 

Rollo  jumped  up  to  look  at  his  apples,  and 
he  found  they  were  done.  So  he  went  and 
got  a  large  plate,  and  a  knife,  and  Dorothy 
took  them  up,  one  by  one,  carefully,  and  he 
carried  them  out  into  the  back  room  to  cool, 
Then  he  came  back;  but,  before  asking  Doro- 
thy to  go  on  with  her  story,  he  went  to  see 
how  Jonas  was  getting  along.  He  found  that 
he  had  put  in  the  three  masts  and  the  bow- 
sprit, and  now  he  was  just  taking  out  some 
thread  from  one  of  his  drawers  to  make  the 
shrouds  with.  Rollo  looked  on  a  moment, 
and  then  he  went  back  to  his  cricket  and  sat 
down,  and  said, 

"Well,  Dorothy,  go  on." 

'iJust  as  I  was  almost  asleep,"  resumed 
Dorothy,  u  I  heard  Oliver's  pleasant  little 
voice  again. 

"I  Dorothy!' 

"'What?'  said  I. 

"  'I  can't  get  asleep  unless  you  give  me 
something  to  drink.' 


hollo's  vacation.  137 

"  I  Well,'  said  I,  'I  will  come.' 

"  I  then  happened  to  think  that  there  was 
a  bundle  of  herbs  upon  the  shelf,  which 
mother  kept  for  sickness,  and  I  thought  that 
I  had  better  make  him  some  herb-tea,  and  let 
him  drink  that.  So  I  told  him  that  if  he 
would  lie  still  a  few  minutes  I  would  make 
him  some  good  warm  tea,  and  that  would  not 
hurt  him.  Then  I  went  and  took  down  some 
of  the  herbs  and  put  them  in  a  mug,  and 
poured  some  hot  water  upon  them,  out  of  a 
tea-kettle  which  stood  by  the  side  of  the  fire, 
and  set  it  down  to  steep.  He  laid  still,  with 
his  eyes  shut,  waiting  for  his  tea  as  patient  as 
a  little  lamb." 

"  I  wish  I  had  a  lamb,"  said  Rollo. 

"  After  a  few  minutes,"  continued  Dorothy, 
"I  poured  it  out  into  a  bowl,  and  then  put  in 
some  milk  and  sugar,  and  made  it  just  warm 
enough,  and  carried  it  to  him. 

"  ■  Here,  Oliver,'  said  I,  *  here  is  your 
drink.'  - 

"  But  Oliver  did  not  move  or  answer.  His 
cheek  was  on  his  hand  and  his  hand  upon 
his  pillow,  and  he  was  breathing  very  quietly. 
•  "  '  Poor  little  fellow !  he  has  gone  to  sleep 
after  all,'  said  I.  \  And  now  had  I  better 
wake  him  up  to  give  him  some  drink?' 
/#      12* 


138 

"At  first  I  did  not  know  what  to  do. 
What  should  you  have  done,  Rollo  ?" 

"  Why, — I — don't  know,"  said  Rollo,  hesi- 
tating. 

"What  should  you  have  wished  to  have 
been  done  to  you,  in  such  a  case?" 

"Oh,  I  should  have  wanted  to  be  waked 
up  and  have  that  good  drink." 

"Should  you?"  said  Dorothy.  "Well, 
now,  I  thought  he  would  rather  not  be  waked; 
for  perhaps,  you  know,  he  would  not  be  able 
to  get  to  sleep  again  very  easily.  At  any 
rate  I  did  not  wake  him.  I  put  the  bowl 
down  softly  before  the  fire,  and  covered  it 
over  with  a  plate,  and  then  crept  along  to 
bed. 

"  I  watched  him  for  some  time,  expecting 
that  he  would  wake  up  and  want  his  drink ; 
but  he  did  not,  and  at  last  I  began  to  grow 
sleepy.  He  seemed  to  breathe  easier  and 
easier,  and  I  thought  he  must  be  getting  bet- 
ter. At  any  rate,  I  felt  much  less  anxiety 
about  him,  and  before  a  great  while  I  fell 
asleep. 

"I  slept  a  long  time ;  but  at  last  I  was 
awakened  by  hearing  a  noise  at  the  fireplace. 
I  started  up,  and  saw  Oliver  out  of  bed,  and 


139 

taking  up  a  stick  of  wood  from  a  little  wood- 
pile which  was  at  the  side  of  the  fire. 

"'Why,  Oliver !'  said  I.  'What  are  you 
doing?' 

"  He  turned  round  towards  me  and  said, 

"  '  Oh,  I  was  only  going  to  put  a  little  wood 
on  the  fire.     It  is  almost  burnt  out.' 

"I  got  up  and  went  to  him,  and  told  him 
he  must  not  get  out  of  bed,  for  he  would  take 
cold ;  and  I  told  him  that  2"  would  build  the 
fire.  He  then  laid  down  again,  and  I  covered 
him  up  and  asked  him  how  he  felt. 

"  '  Oh,'  said  he,  '  I  am  a  great  deal  better.' 

"I  felt  of  his  cheek,  and  it  was  not  hot, 
and  it  did  not  look  flushed  as  it  did  before." 

Just  then  the  door  which  led  from  the  par- 
lor opened,  and  Rollo's  mother  came  in  and 
said, 

"Come,  Rollo;  isn't  it  about  time  for  you 
to  go  to  bed?" 

"Oh,  mother,"  said  Rollo,  "do  let  me  sit 
up  and  hear  the  rest  of  this  story." 

"Oh,  I  have  got  about  through,"  said 
Dorothy.  "  I  found  that  Oliver  was  a  great 
deal  better.  I  made  him  some  gruel  for  break- 
fast, and  before  the  middle  of  the  forenoon  he 
was  building  houses  of  corn  cobs,  by  the 
chimney  corner." 


140  ROLLO'S    VACATION. 

"Corn  cobs]"  said  Rollo.  "What  are 
they?" 

"I'll  tell  you  to-morrow,"  said  Jonas,  rising 
from  his  bench,  "if  it  is  time  for  you  to  go  to 
bed  now." 

"  Oh,  he  may  stay  a  minute  or  two  longer 
if  he  wants  to  have  you  finish  the  story," 
said  his  mother;  "and  then  you  may  come 
into  the  parlor." 

Then  his  mother  went  away,  and  Rollo 
took  the  ship,  which  Jonas  held  out  to  him. 

"Oh,  what  a  beautiful  ship!"  said  he. 
"  Is  it  done,  Jonas?" 

"No;  the  sails  are  not  on.  I  must  put 
those  on  some  other  day." 

Rollo  stood  looking  at  the  masts  and  rig- 
ging, while  Jonas  took  up  his  "gundalow" 
and  carried  it  out  to  its  place.  Then  he  came 
in,  bringing  with  him  Rollo' s  plate  of  apples. 
Rollo  gave  Jonas  one,  and  Dorothy  one,  and 
then  he  took  the  plate  containing  the  rest  in 
one  hand,  and  his  ship  in  the  other,  and  then 
said, 

"  Now  how  shall  I  open  the  door  ?" 

"I  will  open  it  for  you,"  said  Jonas,  "in  a 
moment." 

Jonas  was  then  sweeping  the  chips  and 
shavings  he  had  made  into  the  fire,  for  he 


hollo's  vacation.  141 

always  brushed  up  his  own  litter.  Then  he 
opened  the  door,  and  Rollo  went  into  the 
parlor. 

Rollo  gave  his  father  and  mother  each  an 
apple,  and  showed  them  his  ship.  They 
liked  the  ship  very  much,  and  told  Rollo  that 
he  might  sit  down  with  them  and  eat  his 
apple.  After  that  he  went  out  to  get  his 
safety  lamp,  to  go  to  bed. 

"  Dorothy,"  said  he,  when  he  got  into  the 
kitchen  again,  "you  did  not  tell  me  when 
your  father  and  mother  got  home." 

"Oh,  they  did  not  get  home  until  that 
night.     They  had  a  terrible  time." 

"Was  the  Black  Ridge  road  blocked  up?" 

"Oh  yes,  all  solid  and  full;  so  that  they 
had  to  take  down  the  fence  and  go  out  into 
the  field.  But  Oliver  was  almost  well  when 
they  got  home." 

"Well,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  think  it  is  a  very 
good  story.  I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for 
telling  it  to  me.  Jonas,"  he  continued,  "will 
you  come  up  and  get  my  light  pretty  soon?" 

"Yes,"  said  Jonas. 

So  Rollo  took  his  safety  lamp  and  went  up 
to  bed.  In  a  short  time  Jonas  came  up,  and 
sat  talking  with  him  a  few  minutes.  Then 
he  arose  and  took  the  lamp,  saying, 


142 


"  Well,  Rollo,  you  must  remember  the  les- 
son you  learnt  from  Dorothy's  story." 

"  What  lesson  ?"  said  Rollo. 

"  Why,  that  you  must  follow  little  Oliver's 
example,  in  being  gentle,  patient  and  obedient, 
when  you  are  sick." 

"He  was  a  good  boy,  wasn't  he,  Jonas?" 
said  Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Jonas;  "/  think  so.  Good 
night." 


ROLLO'S   VACATION.  143 


THANNY. 


Rollo  had  one  brother  and  one  sister, 
although  they  have  not  lately  been  mentioned 
in  these  stories.  They  had  been  away  from 
home  for  some  time,  on  a  .long  visit,  in  a  town 
at  some  distance,  and  about  this  time  they 
were  expected  home. 

Rollo' s  sister's  name  was  Mary,  and  she 
was  about  seventeen  years  of  age.  She  was 
a  bright,  happy-looking  girl,  and  Rollo  loved 
her  very  much;  for  she  was  always  very  kind 
to  him,  and  when  she  was  at  home  she  used 
to  help  him  very  much  in  all  his  pursuits  and 
enjoyments.  His  little  brother's  name  was 
Nathan;  and  he  was  now  about  two  years 
and  a  half  old,  and  was  fast  learning  to  talk. 

They  came  home  in  Rollo's  vacation,  and 
he  talked  almost  continually,  the  day  before 
they  came,  of  their  expected  arrival,  and  of 
the  pleasure  he  expected  to  enjoy  in  playing 
with  little  Thanny ;  for  while  he  was  so  very 
young  they  often  changed  his  name  from 
Nathan  to  little  Thanny. 

The  next  morning  after  Rollo's  brother 
and  sister  came  home,  Natbm  wanted  Roll© 


144 


to  be  his  horse.  Mary  said  she  would  give 
them  some  reins ;  and  so  she  went  and  got  a 
pretty  long  piece  of  twine,  and  Hollo  tied  the 
two  ends  together  and  put  them  into  his 
mouth,  and  gave  the  other  part  to  Nathan. 
Then  he  gave  him  his  whip,  and  said, 

"There,  Thanny;  now  I  will  be  your 
horse." 

So  Nathan  said  something  which  he  meant 
for  "get  up,"  and  began  to  whip  Rollo  with 
his  whip.  Rollo  started  off  upon  the  full  run. 
Nathan  tried  to  keep  up,  but  he  could  not, 
and,  after  being  pulled  along  violently  a  few 
steps,  fell  down  and  began  to  cry  very  loud. 

Rollo  had  not  the  least  intention  to  hurt 
Thanny,  and  he  stood  looking  on,  in  mute 
astonishment,  at  such  an  unexpected  catas- 
trophe. Mary  came  and  raised  Thanny  up. 
and  soon  succeeded  in  quieting  him.  Then 
she  told  Rollo  that  he  must  remember  that 
Nathan  was  only  a  very  little  boy,  and  could 
not  run  as  fast  and  play  as  hard  as  the  boys 
at  school,  who  were  as  big  as  Rollo.  Rollo 
promised  to  be  more  careful.  Nathan  took 
the  reins,  and  Rollo  trotted  along  before  him, 
with  very  short  steps,  so  that  he  could  easily 
keep  up;  and  now  Nathan  seemed  to  enjoy 
the  play  very  highly. 


hollo's  vacation,  145 

Presently  Nathan  drove  him  out  into  the 
garden  yard,  and  Mary  came  and  looked  out 
of  the  window  to  see  them  play. 

"Why  don't  you  have  Nathan  for  your 
horse?"  said  she,  at  length,  to  Rollo. 

"Well,"  said  Rollo,  "I  will.  Here,  Thanny; 
you  may  be  my  horse  a  little  while." 

So  he  put  the  bits  into  Thanny's  mouth, 
and  then  he  took  the  whip  and  reins  himself 
and  drove  him.  Nathan  seemed  to  under- 
stand his  duties  very  well,  and  trotted  about, 
looking  quite  pleased ;  only  he  now  and  then 
stopped  to  take  the  bits  out  of  his  mouth,  as 
if  he  did  not  like  to  have  them  in. 

"  Can't  you  contrive  any  way  to  drive  him 
without  putting  bits  into  his  mouth?"  said 
Mary. 

"No,"  said  Rollo;  "horses  always  have 
bits." 

"  I  know  they  do,  generally ;  but  I  wonder 
if  I  could  not  contrive  a  kind  of  harness  that 
would  be  better?" 

"A  harness?"  said  Rollo;  "a  real  har- 
ness?" 

"  Perhaps  I  might  contrive  something  which 
would  be  a  little  more  like  a  real  harness 
than  your  bits,"  said  Mary.    "  If  you  will  come- 
in  about  twelve  o'clock  I  will  try." 
g  13 


146 


Rollo  thought  he  should  like  the  plan  very 
much,  but  Nathan  did  not  understand  what 
they  had  been  saying.  He  did  not  know 
what  harness  meant. 

Rollo  droye  him  about  the  yard  a  short 
time,  and  then  he  opened  the  garden  gate  and 
drove  him  in  there.  After  running  about  the 
walks  a  little  while,  he  began  to  get  tired  of 
playing  horses,  and,  seeing  some  poppy-heads 
that  looked  pretty  ripe,  he  turned  to  Nathan 
and  said, 

"  Oh,  Nathan,  see  these  poppy-heads  !  We 
will  gather  some,  and  we  won't  play  horses 
any  more  now." 

So  he  took  the  reins  and  put  them  in  his 
pocket,  and  gave  Nathan  a  poppy-head,  and 
told  him  to  hold  it  upright ;  and  he  showed 
him  how  he  meant. 

"  Because,"  said  he,  "  Thanny,  if  you  tip 
it  down,  all  the  seeds  will  fall  out, — so." 

And,  as  he  said  this,  he  turned  the  poppy- 
head  down,  and  let  a  few  of  the  seeds  drop 
out  into  Thanny's  little  hand,  by  way  of 
showing  him  the  reason  why  he  must  hold  it 
upright. 

But  it  very  often  happens  that  the  very  rea- 
son which  ought  to  lead  children  not  to  do  a 
thing,  only  excites  in  them  a  stronger  desire 


147 

to  do  it.  And  it  war  certainly  so  now ;  for 
when  Nathan  saw  the  little  round  seeds  drop 
out,  it  seemed  so  curious  to  him,  that,  instead 
of  holding  the  poppy-head  upright,  he  imme- 
diately began  to  tip  it  over,  and  to  pour  out 
more  seeds  into  his  little  hand. 

"No,  no,  Thanny,"  said  Rollo,  "you  must 
not  do  so  j  you  will  lose  all  the  seeds.  You 
must  carry  it  so  ;" — and  here  Rollo  took  hold 
of  it,  and  showed  him  how  to  hold  it  upright. 
"Because,"  he  continued,  "  we  want  to  save 
the  seeds.  You  must  carry  it  upright  till  we 
get  into  the  house,  and  then  we  will  put  them 
into  a  paper." 

But  the  moment  Rollo  let  go  of  Thanny 's 
hand,  over  went  the  poppy-head,  and  his  lit- 
tle hand  was  held  out  under  it,  to  catch  the 
seeds.  Then  Rollo  tried  to  turn  it  up  again ; 
Nathan  resisted.  Rollo  tried  the  harder; 
Nathan  struggled  against  him  and  began  to 
cry. 

Rollo  thought  he  had  better  not  make  him 
cry,  and  accordingly  he  desisted;  and  after 
standing  a  few  minutes  in  a  state  of  uncer- 
tainty, he  concluded  to  go  in  and  tell  his 
mother  that  Nathan  would  not  obey  him. 

He  accordingly  left  Nathan  in  the  garden 
and  went  in.     As  he  was  passing  through  the 


148 

yard,  he  met  Jonas;  and  Jonas  asked  him 
what  he  had  done  with  Nathan.  This  led 
Rollo  to  tell  Jonas  the  story. 

"Oh,"  said  Jonas,  "I  would  not  go  and 
trouble  your  mother  about  that." 

"  Why,  Jonas,"  said  he,  "what  shall  I  do? 
He  is  spilling  all  my  seeds." 

"Yes;  but  there  are  more  poppy-heads 
than  you  will  want  to  gather,  so  let  him  have 
two  or  three  and  spill  them  if  he  p>eases. 
Let  him  manage  with  them  just  as  he  wants 
to.  Can't  you  afford  to  lose  two  or  three 
poppy-heads  to  please  him?" 

"  But  I  wanted  to  save  my  seeds  to  give  to 
my  sister  Mary.  She  is  going  to  have  a  gar- 
den next  year." 

"  Yes ;  but  you  have  enough  more.  And, 
besides,  you  may  as  well  use  a  part  of  the 
poppy-heads  for  his  enjoyment  as  for  hers." 

So  saying,  Jonas  walked  on,  leaving  Rollo 
to  think  of  what  he  had  been  saying. 

Rollo  stood  a  moment  in  thought,  and  then 
slowly  turned  round  and  walked  back  into 
the  garden. 

"  Well,  Thanny,"  said  he,  "  you  may  have 
the  poppy-head,  and  do  whatever  you  have  a 
mind  to  with  it." 

But  Thanny,  he  found,  had  thrown  the 


hollo's  vacation.  149 

poppy-head  away,  and  was  playing  with  the 
gravel-stones  of  the  walk. 

Then  Rollo  picked  up  his  poppy-head  and 
told  him  he  might  have  it;  but  Nathan  did  not 
want  it,  and  Rollo  two  or  three  times  tried  to 
make  him  take  it.  Presently,  however,  he 
thought  he  might  as  well  let  him  be  happy  in 
his  own  way ;  and  so  he  left  him,  and  began 
to  gather  some  sweet  peas,  which  grew  pretty 
near  there,  and  seemed  pretty  ripe. 

After  getting  one  hand  full  of  pea-pods,  he 
gathered  with  the  other  several  poppy-heads, 
as  many,  in  fact,  as  he  could  take,  and  then, 
calling  Nathan  to  come  with  him,  he  began 
to  walk  towards  the  house.  But  Nathan 
would  not  come.  He  seemed  well  contented 
to  stay  and  play  with  his  gravel-stones ;  and, 
in  fact,  I  don't  think  he  supposed  that  he  was 
under  any  obligation  to  obey  Rollo. 

Rollo  walked  along  slowly,  looking  back 
continually,  and  calling  Nathan  to  follow  him. 
But  Nathan  did  not  move. 

u  Oh  dear  me,"  said  Rollo;  "  what  shall  I 
do?"     Then,  calling  aloud,  he  said, 

"  Thanny,  you  must  come  along  this  mo- 
ment ;  or  else  I  shall  go  away  and  leave  you 
all  alone." 

After  a  minute  or  two  more,  little  Nathan 
13* 


150       , 

got  up,  and  walked  along  slowly  towards 
Rollo ;  and  Rollo  then  went  on  to  the  piazza, 
where  he  sat  down,  and  laid  his  poppy-heads 
and  pea-pods  down  by  his  side. 

"Now  I  must  have  something  to  put  my 
seeds  in,"  said  Rollo;  and  he  got  up  to  go 
into  the  house  to  get  a  plate. 

As  soon  as  he  went  away,  Nathan  came 
up,  and  began  to  pull  about  his  pea-pods. 

"  No — Thanny,  Thanny,"  said  he,  "  no, — 
you  must  not  touch." 

So  he  went  back  and  led  Thanny  gently 
away.  But  he  would  come  back  as  soon  as 
Rollo  began  to  go  away  again. 

Rollo  tried  to  keep  him  from  touching  his 
seeds  in  every  way  he  could  think  of,  but  all 
seemed  to  be  to  no  purpose;  and  at  last  his 
patience  was  pretty  nearly  exhausted.  He 
had  thought  it  would  be  a  fine  thing  to  have 
little  Nathan  at  home ;  but  now  he  began  to 
wish  him  away  again.  "  I  can't  do  anything 
at  all,"  said  he  to  himself,  "he  troubles  me 
so." 

Just  at  this  moment  he  heard  his  mother's 
step  in  her  chamber,  the  window  of  which 
was  nearly  over  where  he  stood ;  and  so  he 
called  to  her. 


ROLLO'S    VACATION.  151 

His  mother  came  and  looked  out  the  win- 
dow. 

"Mother,"  said  he,  "will  you  speak  to 
Thanny?  he  will  pull  my  seeds  about  the 
moment  I  leave  them.  Or  else,  mother,  if 
you  would  be  so  good  as  to  bring  me  out  a 
plate  to  put  them  in,  while  I  stay  here  and 
keep  him  from  touching  them." 

"I  can't  come  down  very  well  now,"  said 
his  mother,  in  reply;  "but  I  think  you  can 
manage  it.  Give  him  one,  of  the  pods,  and 
show  him  how  to  get  the  peas  out,  and  that 
will  amuse  him." 

Rollo  then  wondered  that  he  had  not 
thought  of  some  such  plan  as  this  before; 
and  he  immediately  gave  Nathan  a  pod,  and 
opened  it  for  him  a  little,  at  one  end,  so  as  to 
let  him  see  the  peas.  Nathan  took  it,  with 
his  interest  and  curiosity  much  excited,  and 
sat  down  at  once,  and  went  to  work  to  pull 
out  the  little  round  peas.  Rollo  immediately 
went  in  after  his  plates.  He  borrowed  two 
of  Dorothy,  and  then  came  immediately  back, 
and  found  Nathan  still  busily  employed  about 
his  pod. 

Rollo  then  began  to  shell  his  remaining 
pods  into  one  of  the  plates,  and  after  he  had 
done  that  he  shook  out  the  poppy-seeds  into 


152 


the  other  plate.  This  took  him  some  time. 
At  last,  however,  when  he  got  it  finished,  he 
recollected  that  he  had  no  bags  made,  as  he 
intended,  to  put  the  seeds  into ;  and  he  thought 
therefore  that  he  would  go  into  the  house  and 
get  some  papers,  and  do  up  his  seeds  injthem. 

By  this  time  Nathan  had  done  playing  with 
his  pea-pod,  but  he  had  got  a  little  stick  and 
was  digging  in  the  path.  So  Rollo  left  him 
and  went  in,  in  search  for  some  pieces  of 
paper.  He  found  a  piece  of  newspaper  in  a 
drawer,  where  waste  newspapers  were  usu- 
ally kept,  and  he  tried  to  do  his  seeds  up. 
But  he  could  not  succeed  in  doing  it  very 
neatly,  and  he  began  to  wish  he  had  some 
paper  bags. 

After  sitting  for  some  minutes,  looking  upon 
the  awkward-shaped  parcels  he  had  made 
in  his  attempts  to  put  up  his  seeds  in  papers, 
he  concluded  to  go  and  get  his  little  gum- 
bottle  and  make  a  bag. 

This  gum-bottle  was  one  that  Jonas  had 
made  him  a  day  or  two  before.  He  had 
bought  a  little  powdered  gum-arabic,  and 
Jonas  had  put  it  into  a  small  phial  and  added 
a  little  water  to  it ;  and  then  he  had  fitted  a 
small  brush,  made  of  the  top  of  a  quill,  into 
the  cork,  in  such  a  manner  that  the  feather 


153 


end  of  the  brush  extended  down  into  the  dis- 
solved gum-arabic.  Thus  by  taking  out  the 
cork  he  always  had  a  brush  ready  for  use. 

He  brought  down  his  gum-bottle  and  a  pair 
of  scissors,  and,  taking  a  piece  of  newspaper, 
he  cut  out  his  bag.  The  way  he  did  it  was 
to  cut  out  two  pieces  of  paper,  about  two 
inches  wide  and  three  inches  long,  making 
one  of  them  however  a  little  smaller  than  the 
other  at  the  bottom  and  at  the  two  sides. 
Then  he  laid  the  largest  paper  down  upon  the 
piazza  floor,  and  put  the  other  upon  it,  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  bring  the  tops  of  the  two 
exactly  even.  Then  he  pasted  all  the  edges 
of  the  lower  paper,  where  they  extended 
beyond  the  upper  one,  and  then  carefully 
folded  them  over  and  pressed  them  down,  and 
thus  joined  the  two  papers  strongly  together 
by  all  the  edges  except  the  upper  one,  where 
he  was  going  to  put  the  seeds  in. 

He  looked  at  his  bag  when  it  was  done, 
and  liked  it  very  well. 

"Now,"  said  he,  "if  it  was  only  dry  I 
could  put  my  peas  right  in,  and  carry  it  and 
show  it  to  mother.3'  But  it  was  not  dry.  He 
concluded  to  put  it  in  the  sun,  and  after  let- 
ting it  stay  there  a  few  minutes  he  thought  it 
would  do,  and  so  he  began  to  put  the  seeds  in. 


154  ROLLO  S   VACATION. 

He  filled  it  nearly  full  of  seeds,  and  then 
he  began  to  fold  over  the  top,  to  keep  them 
in,  when  suddenly  he  began  to  hear  a  rat- 
tling upon  the  floor  of  the  platform,  and  look- 
ing down  he  found  that  the  peas  were  stream- 
ing out,  one  by  one,  but  rapidly,  from  a  hole 
at  the  bottom.  They  had  burst  out  because 
the  gum  had  not  had  time  to  dry. 

Nathan  heard  the  rattling,  and  came  run- 
ning to  see.  Rollo  began  hastily  to  gather 
up  his  peas  again,  and  tried  to  make  Nathan 
go  away;  but  Nathan  would  not.  He  got 
several  peas  into  his  hand,  and  would  not 
give  them  up.  Rollo  tried  to  take  them 
away;  Nathan  struggled.  Rollo  held  on  to 
his  hand,  and  Nathan  began  to  scream. 

Their  mother  came  to  the  door  to  see  what 
was  the  matter.  Rollo,  still  holding  on  to 
Nathan's  hand,  said, 

"  He  has  got  my  peas." 

Nathan,  still  clasping  his  hand  tight  ovei 
the  peas,  said, 

"I  want  some  peas,  I  want  some  peas." 

"  Let  go  of  his  hand,  Rollo,"  said  their  mo- 
ther.    Rollo  obeyed. 

"  Give  Rollo  his  peas,  Nathan,"  she  added, 
looking  at  Nathan.  Nathan  obeyed.  He 
knew  he  must  obey  his  mother,  and  he  ac- 


155 

cordingly  delivered  up  the  peas  to  Rollor 
though  he  did  it  slowly  and  reluctantly. 

"  You  did  wrong,  Rollo,"  said  she.  "  You 
must  never  use  violence  with  him." 

"  Why,  mother,  he  was  getting  all  my 
peas." 

"No  matter  for  that,"  said  she.  "You 
must  never  use  violence  with  him,  unless  it 
is  some  very  extraordinary  case  of  absolute 
and  immediate  necessity." 

"What  is  that,  mother?"  said  Rollo. 

"  Why,  suppose  he  was  eating  something 
which  you  knew  was  poison,  and  you  had 
not  time  to  come  and  tell  me,  you  might  take 
it  away,  rather  than  let  him  poison  himself; 
or  if  he  was  in  the  road,  and  a  cart  or  a  drove 
of  cattle  were  coming  along,  and  there  was 
great  danger  of  his  getting  run  over.  Such 
cases  as  those  are  cases  of  immediate  and 
absolute  necessity.  It  is  immediate  because 
you  have  not  time  to  come  and  see  me,  and 
it  is  absolute  because  he  is  in  the  utmost  dan- 
ger. But  in  any  common  case,  and  especially 
if  you  are  only  going  to  lose  a  few  peas,  you 
never  must  resort  to  violence.  You  must 
come  and  tell  me." 

"  Well,  mother,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  wish  you 


156  hollo's  vacation. 

would  take  him  in  now,  for  he  troubles  me 
very  much." 

She  replied  that  she  could  not  take  him  in 
then  very  well.  In  about  an  hour,  she  said, 
it  would  be  time  for  him  to  go  to  sleep,  but 
until  then  she  must  let  him  stay  and  play 
out  in  the  yard ;  but  she  said  she  would  tell 
him  he  must  not  touch  his  seeds. 

So  she  charged  Nathan  not  to  touch  Rollo's 
things,  and  then  told  Rollo  that  perhaps  Na- 
than would  like  to  wheel  his  wheelbarrow. 
Rollo  accordingly  went  and  brought  it,  and 
Nathan,  as  his  mother  had  expected,  was  very 
much  pleased  with  it,  and  began  at  once  to 
try  to  wheel  it  about  the  yard,  though  it  was 
so  large  that  he  could  only  get  it  along  a  few 
steps  at  a  time. 

Rollo  then  undertook  to  mend  his  bag,  but 
he  got  the  paper  very  wet,  and  it  stuck  to  his 
ringers  and  got  torn,  until  at  length  he  began 
to  be  quite  discouraged.  In  fact,  he  began  to 
feel  very  much  dispirited  and  worried.  He 
said  he  would  give  up ;  and  he  threw  away 
the  seeds  out  of  his  plates  and  rose  to  carry 
the  plates  in. 

"  Well,  Rollo,"  said  his  mother,  as  she  saw 
him  putting  the  plates  into  the  closet,  "and 
how  do  you  get  along  7" 


157 

"Oh,  I  don't  get  along  at  all,"  said  he. 
"My  bag  is  burst,  and  my  paste  won't  stick, 
and  I  have  thrown  all  my  seeds  away." 

There  was  something  impatient  and  fretful 
in  the  tone  in  which  Rollo  said  this  to  his 
mother. 

"  And  have  you  cleared  away  the  pods  and 
stalks  you  scattered  down  about  the  piazza?" 

"  Why  no,"  said  Rollo,— "  must  I  V} 

"  Certainly,"  said  his  mother.  "  You  must 
never  make  any  litter  in  such  a  place  without 
afterwards  clearing  it  up." 

Rollo  looked  rather  more  discontented  still 
at  this,  but  he  did  not  reply.  He  went  to  the 
corner  of  the  kitchen,  where  there  was  a 
broom  hanging,  and  began  to  take  it  down. 

"  You  must  not  sweep  them  off  upon  the 
grass,  or  upon  the  walk,  Rollo." 

"  Why,  mother?"  said  he. . 

"  Oh,  because  it  will  look  very  untidy. 
You  must  clear  it  all  away.  You  can  sweep 
it  up  into  a  little  heap,  and  then  take  it  up 
carefully  and  put  it  into  your  wheelbarrow, 
and  wheel  it  away." 

This  was  all  very  reasonable,  and  Rollo 

knew  it ;  but  he  was  getting  out  of  humor, 

and  he  did  not  like  this  additional  trouble. 

He  ought  to  have  had  something  there  to  put 

14 


158 

his  pods  and  stalks  into,  and  then  he  could 
easily  have  carried  them  away ;  hut  he  was 
so  much  interested  in  getting  in  his  seeds  that 
he  did  not  think  of  that.  But  now,  since  he 
had  neglected  taking  the  proper  measures,  he 
ought  not  to  have  repined  at  being  obliged  to 
submit  to  the  trouble  and  inconvenience  which 
he  had  brought  upon  himself  by  his  own  neg- 
lect. 

Though  he  felt  wrong  at  heart,  he  did  not 
say  much  against  doing  it.  He  took  the 
broom  and  went  out,  intending  with  the 
broom  to  sweep  up  his  litter  into  a  little  heap, 
and  then  to  take  it  up.  He  did  the  work, 
however,  very  hastily  and  carelessly.  Boys 
generally  do  their  work  so  when  they  are 
discontented  and  out  of  humor.  His  mother 
expected  it  would  be  so,  and  accordingly, 
when  he  had  been  out  about  long  enough  to 
have  finished  his  work,  she  came  to  the  door, 
and  looked  to  see  how  he  had  done  it. 

"Rollo,"  said  she,  "when  in  your  plays 
you  put  any  place  out  of  order,  don't  you 
think  you  ought  to  put  it  in  as  good  oraer 
again  as  it  was  before?" 

"Why,  yes,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Very  well ;  now  look  at  the  piazza,  and 


159 


at  the  grass,  and  see  if  it  is  in  as  good  order 
as  it  was  when  you  began  working  here." 

Rollo  looked,  and  he  saw  that  there  were 
several  stalks  and  pods  and  broken  poppy- 
heads  lying  about  in  the  grass,  and  some 
were  upon  the  floor  of  the  piazza.  He  saw 
how  the  case  was,  but  he  did  not  answer. 

"  You  must  take  them  all  up  clean,"  said 
his  mother. 

Rollo  began  to  fret,  and  even  to  cry  a  little. 
He  said  he  was  very  tired  and  very  hungry, 
and,  besides,  he  did  not  feel  very  well. 

Rollo  had  a  habit,  which  a  good  many  boys 
have  to  a  much  greater  degree  than  he,  of  say- 
ing, when  things  went  wrong,  and  especially 
when  he  got  tired  of  some  unpleasant  duty, 
that  he  did  not  feel  very  well.  It  is  very  true 
that  Rollo  did  not  feel  very  well  just  then, 
but  it  was  not  sickness.  He  had  only  got 
tired  of  play,  and  vexed  and  worried  by  the 
difficulties  which  he  had  got  himself  into. 

Now  there  is  only  one  proper  course  for  us 
to  take  when  we  get  ourselves  into  difficulties 
of  any  sort,  and  that  is  to  go  on,  good- 
naturedly  and  perseveringly,  until  we  get 
ourselves  out.  Rollo  ought  to  have  said  to 
himself, 

"  Well,  I'll  do  it  thoroughly.     Here,  Than- 


160  ROLLO'S    VACATION. 

ny,  come  up  here  with  your  wheelbarrow 
and  take  in  a  load  of  rubbish." 

Thus  he  might  have  turned  it  into  an 
amusement,  having  the  wheelbarrow  for  a 
cart  and  Nathan  for  a  horse,  and  then  in  a 
short  time  the  work  would  all  have  been  very 
easily  done. 

Instead  of  that  he  worked  away,  slowly 
and  discontentedly ;  and  after  he  had  finished 
it  he  went  into  the  house,  put  his  cap  upon 
its  nail,  and  walked  with  a  very  melancholy 
face  into  the  parlor,  where  his  sister  Mary 
was  sitting,  and  threw  himself  down  upon  the 
sofa. 

Mary  saw  in  a  moment,  by  the  expression 
of  his  countenance,  that  something  had  gone 
wrong,  and  that  he  was  a  little  worried  in 
mind.  She  looked  at  him  pleasantly,  saying, 
.  "Well,  Rollo,  what  is  the  matter  with 
you?" 

"Oh,  I  don't  know,"  said  Rollo,  mourn- 
fully.    "I  don't  feel  very  well." 

"Don't  you?"  said  Mary,  walking  up  to 
him,  with  a  pleasant  countenance.  "  What 
is  the  matter?" 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Rollo,  turning  over 
and  hiding  his  face  away  from  her. 

"If  you  will  tell  me  how  you  feel,  perliaps 


161 

I  can  tell  you  what  the  matter  is ;  for  I  know 
the  symptoms  of  several  kinds  of  sicknesses." 

"What  kinds?"  said  Rollo. 

"Why,  fever  is  one  kind.  Then  people  feel 
hot,  and  their  pulse  beats  quick." 

"It  is  not  that,"  said  Rollo,  "  for  I  am  cold, 
— as  cold  as  I  can  be." 

"  Then  perhaps  it  is  pleurisy"  said  Mary. 

"What  sort  of  a  sickness  is  that?"  said 
Rollo,  forgetting  his  ill-humor  for  a  moment, 
and  turning  round  to  look  at  Mary. 

"Why,  if  you  draw  a  long,  full  breath, 
then  you  feel  a  sharp  pain  all  through  your 
sides  and  back." 

Rollo  very  gravely  drew  a  long  breath. 
His  chest  swelled  out  full,  but  he  felt  no 
pain. 

"  No,"  said  he;  "'tisn't  that." 

"Well,  consumption,  then?"  said  Mary. 
"People  that  have  the  consumption  have  a 
very  hard  cough.  Do  you  think  it  is  con- 
sumption?" 

Mary  had  looked  pretty  grave  and  sober, 
but  now  Rollo  thought  he  perceived  a  very 
slight  tendency  to  a  smile  upon  her  counte- 
nance, and  he  began  to  think  she  might  be 
secretly  laughing  at  him  a  little. 

" No,"  said  he,  "it  is  not  consumption ;" 

g*       14* 


162  ROLLO'S    VACATION. 

and  so  saying,  he  jumped  off  of  the  sofa  and 
ran  to  Mary,  and  began  to  pull  her  round  and 
round  by  her  hand.  She  thought  she  would 
not  tease  him  any  more,  and  she  said, 

"  Oh,  Rollo,  did  not  I  promise  to  make  you 
a  harness  3  If  you  will  go  and  bring  in 
Nathan  I  will  try  now." 

Away  Rollo  ran  after  Nathan,  and  while 
he  was  gone  Mary  went  up  stairs  to  get  some 
list,  to  answer  instead  of  leather,  to  make  the 
harness  of. 

In  a  short  time  they  all  three  met  in  the 
parlor  again,  and  Mary  began  to  measure 
Rollo  with  the  list  for  his  harness.  She  first 
cut  off  two  pieces  long  enough  to  go  around 
his  arms,  near  the  shoulder,  and  sewed  the 
ends  together ;  then  she  sewed  a  piece  across 
behind,  extending  from  one  of  these  shoulder- 
pieces  to  the  other.  That  she  said  might  be 
called  the  saddle,  as  it  went  across  his  back. 
Where  this  cross-piece  was  joined  to  the  two 
shoulder-pieces,  she  sewed  the  ends  of  the 
reins.  Then  she  sewed  two  short  pieces  to 
the  middle  of  the  shoulder-pieces  in  front, 
and  these  were  intended  to  tie  in  front,  across 
the  breast,  when  the  harness  was  on.  This 
kept  it  all  snug  and  firm  in  its  place. 

Rollo  liked  his  harness  very  much,  and 


163 

after  it  was  finished  Nathan  drove  him 
around  the  room  with  it  several  times,  with 
great  pleasure. 

While  Mary  had  been  making  the  harness, 
she  asked  Rollo  what  he  had  been  doing  all 
the  morning;  and  he  told  her  he  had  been 
gathering  seeds. 

"How  many  have  you  gathered?"  said 
Mary. 

"Oh,  I  gathered  a  very  few,  and  those  I 
had  to  throw  away,  because  I  could  not  make 
my  paper  bag  do." 

He  then  gave  Mary  a  full  account  of  all  his 
difficulties ;  and  she  said  that  he  had  not  gone 
to  work  systematically  enough. 

"What  is  systematically?"  said  Rollo. 

"Don't  you  know?"  said  she.  "Let  me 
see ; — I'll  tell  you  what.  I  can  go  out  after 
dinner,  and  you  and  I  will  undertake  to 
gather  some  seeds,  and  I  will  show  you  how 
to  do  it  systematically." 

"Well,"  said  Rollo;  "I  should  like  that 
very  much." 


164 


THE  SEED-GATHERING. 

"  Now,"  said  Mary  to  Rollo,  after  dinner, 
as  they  walked  together  out  into  the  garden 
yard,  u  the  first  thing,  if  we  are  going  to  pro- 
ceed systematically,  is  to  go  out  into  the  gar- 
den and  see  how  many  kinds  of  flower-seeds 
we  want  to  gather." 

So  they  walked  along  and  began  to  examine 
the  various  flowers,  to  ascertain  which  were 
ripe  enough  to  be  gathered.  They  found 
twelve  kinds.  Then  Mary  set  out  to  go  back 
towards  the  house. 

"But  a'n't  you  going  to  gather  them?" 
said  Rollo. 

"  Not  yet,"  said  Mary. 

She  went  in  and  opened  the  same  drawer 
where  Rollo  had  been  that  morning,  and  took 
out  three  newspapers.  She  then  went  out 
into  the  piazza,  and  tore  each  paper  into 
quarters. 

"  Three  newspapers,  all  torn  into  four 
parts,"  said  she.  "  Three  times  four  are 
twelve.  Now  we  have  got  papers  enough  to 
hold  our  seeds." 


165 

"But  sha'n't  we  put  them  in  bags?"  said 
Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Mary,  "presently;  but  first 
we  must  gather  them  and  spread  them  out  in 
papers  a  little  while,  to  get  them  thoroughly 
dry,  while  we  make  the  bags. 

" And  now,"  continued  Mary,  "to  go  on 
systematically,  we  must  consider  where  will 
be  the  best  place  to  spread  them  out.  It  must 
be  some  place  where  they  will  be  safe,  and 
also  where  our  stalks  and  chaff  will  not  do 
any  damage." 

"  Jonas's  bench  in  the  barn  will  do  exactly," 
said  Rollo. 

"  Let  us  go  and  see,"  said  Mary. 

So  they  went  into  the  barn,  and  Mary  said 
the  bench  would  do  very  well.  She  and  Rollo 
arranged  the  papers  regularly  upon  it,  and 
then,  each  one  taking  one  of  the  papers,  they 
went  out  into  the  garden. 

"Now  we  must  consider,"  said  Mary, 
"what  is  the  best  way  to  gather  the  ripe 
seeds.  If  we  try  to  break  them  off,  we  shall 
shake  out  a  good  many." 

"  I  can  cut  the  stems  off  with  my  knife," 
said  Rollo. 

"Scissors  will  be  better,"  said  Mary,  "for 
they  will  not  jar  the  flowers  so  much.     Sup- 


166 


pose  you  go  and  get  my  large  scissors  out  of 
my  work-basket." 

Rollo  ran  into  the  house  and  brought  out 
the  scissors. 

"Now  which  shall  we  take  first?"  said 
Mary.  "You  may  take  the  mignonette  and 
I  will  take  the  balsams." 

They  accordingly  cut  off  a  plenty  of  stems, 
with  the  ripe  seeds  in  their  little  husky  cover- 
ings, and  when  they  had  got  a  sufficient 
quantity  to  fill  their  papers  they  carried  them 
carefully  along  and  laid  them  on  the  bench, 
beginning  regularly  at  one  corner.  Then 
they  returned  with  two  other  papers,  which 
they  filled  in  the  same  way ;  and  m  a  short 
time  the  whole  twelve  were  filled,  each  with 
the  stalks  and  tops  of  one  kind  of.  flower,  and 
these  were  arranged  in  regular  order  upon  the 
bench,  forming  two  rows,  with  six  in  each 
row. 

Then  they  proceeded  to  separate  the  seeds 
from  the  husks  in  each  parcel,  which  they  did 
by  rubbing  the  tops  between  their  hands. 
The  coarse  chaff  they  gathered  up  with  their 
fingers  and  threw  into  Rollo' s  wheelbarrow, 
which  had  been  previously  placed  before  the 
bench  for  that  purpose.  The  fine  chaff  and 
dust  Mary  blew  away  from  off  the  seeds ;  and 


167 

thus  after  a  time  they  were  all  separated, 
and  all  the  twelve  kinds  were  spread  out 
before  them,  nice  and  clean,  and  ready,  after 
they  should  have  been  dried  a  little,  to  go 
into  the  paper  bags.  v 

"And  now,"  said  Mary,  "  for  the  bags." 

"  We  get  along  finely  this  afternoon,"  said 
Rollo ;  "  but  it  is  because  Nathan  is  not  here." 

"Not  altogether  that,"  said  Mary.  "It  is 
because  we  go  to  work  regularly  and  sys- 
tematically." 

"But  if  Nathan  was  out  here  it  would 
spoil  all." 

"  No,  I  hope  not,"  said  Mary,  "  for  I  should 
first  stop  and  contrive  some  way  to  amuse 
him." 

"  How  should  you  amuse  him  ?"  said  Rollo. 

"Oh,  I  don't  know  exactly,"  said  Mary; 
"  but  I  am  going  in  to  get  some  paper  to  make 
some  bags,  and  I  will  bring  him  out  and  let 
you  see  how  I  should  do  it." 

So  saying,  Rollo  and  Mary  walked  along 
together  to  the  house,  and  Mary  led  the  way 
to  a  large  closet,  where  they  kept  paper  and 
twine,  and  some  old  books  and  papers.  Mary 
looked  over  several  kinds  of  wrapping  paper 
to  find  some  that  was  suitable  for  the  bags. 


168 

"  There  is  some,  Mary,"  said  Rollo.  "  How 
will  that  do  V 

"  That  is  too  heavy  and  stiff,"  said  Mary, 
feeling  of  it,  "  to  make  such  little  bags  of." 

"Well  this?"  said  Rollo,  putting  his  hand 
upon  another  quire. 

"  That  would  do,  only  it  is  rather  coarse. 
There  is  some  that  is  beautiful"  continued 
Mary,  pointing  up  to  a  higher  shelf. 

Rollo  looked  up  and  saw  the  edges  of  some 
nice  straw-colored  paper,  projecting  a  little 
from  the  edge  of  the  shelf.  He  went  and  got 
a  chair,  and  Mary  stepped  up  into  it  and  took 
down  a  quire  of  the  paper,  and  began  to  look 
at  it,  standing  still  as  if  she  was  thinking. 

"Well,  Mary,  a'n't  you  going  to  take 
some?" 

"  Yes,  but  I  must  first  calculate  how  much 
we  shall  want.  Let  me  see ; — we  ought  to 
have  two  or  three  dozen." 

"  Then  you  will  want  a  great  many  sheets," 
said  Rollo. 

Mary  did  not  answer,  but  stood  musing  in 
silence.     Presently  she  said, 

"No;  one  sheet  will  make  two  dozen  at 
least.     I  will  take  two  sheets." 

"  Oh,  I  guess  it  will  take  more,"  said  Rollo, 
"  and  I  am  pretty  good  at  guessing," 


169 

"But  I  have  calculated"  said  Mary,  "and 
calculating  is  better  than  guessing." 

They  walked  along,  carrying  the  two  sheets 
of  paper,  until  they  got  to  the  back  door,  and 
then  Mary  asked  Rollo  to  go  back  and  get 
little  Nathan  and  bring  him  out.  Rollo  did 
so.  He  found  Nathan  running  about  in  the 
kitchen,  and  he  led  him  along  carefully  out 
at  the  door,  and  through  the  yard,  until  he 
reached  the  barn.  Here  he  found  Mary 
spreading  out  the  sheets'  of  paper  upon  the 
bench. 

Mary  said  she  must  first  provide  for  Na- 
than's amusement.  So  she  lifted  him  up 
upon  the  bench,  and  put  him  back  in  a  cor- 
ner, and  gave  him  a  pair  of  scissors  and  a 
piece  of  paper,  and  set  him  at  work  cutting. 
Then  she  and  Rollo  stood  up  at  the  side  of 
the  bench,  between  the  part  where  Nathan 
was  sitting  and  that  where  they  had  placed 
their  twelve  papers  of  seeds. 

Mary  then  laid  down  one  of  her  sheets  of 
paper,  folded  once,  as  it  was  upon  the  shelf. 

"There,"  said  she,  "that  is  folded  once, 
and  that  is  folio." 

Then  she  took  Nathan's  scissors  and  cut 
the  sheet  in  two  where  it  was  folded,  and  then 
put  the  two  halves  together.  She  adjusted 
h       15 


170  hollo's  vacation. 

them  carefully  at  the  sides  and  corners,  so  as 
to  make  them  even,  and  then  she  folded  them 
over  again. 

"There,"  said  she,  "now  it  is  folded  into 
quarters,  and  that  makes  quarto" 

"What  do  you  mean  by  your  folios  and 
quartos?"  said  Rollo. 

"Oh,  that  is  the  way  they  name  books," 
said  Mary  ;  "  father  told  me  one  day.  They 
name  them  according  to  the  number  of  times 
that  they  fold  the  paper  in  making  them.  If 
they  fold  it  only  once,  like  a  newspaper,  it  is 
folio.  If  they  fold  it  twice  it  is  quarto  ;  and 
that  makes  a  book  like  our  great  Bible." 

While  Mary  was  saying  this,  she  cut  her 
papers  in  two  again,  where  they  were  folded 
last,  and  then  she  folded  them  again.  And 
so  she  went  on,  until  at  length  the  number 
of  thicknesses  became  so  great  that  she  could 
not  cut  them  very  well,  and  then  she  took 
half  at  a  time.  Thus,  in  a  short  time,  she 
had  cut  the  whole  sheet  into  small  squares, 
about  big  enough  for  a  bag,  and  these  lay 
together  in  a  pile  before  her. 

Then  she  said,  "Now  I  will  do  the  other 
sheet." 

But  Rollo  was  desirous  of  seeing  some  of 
the  bags  pasted  first,  and  he  proposed  that 


171 

Mary  should  paste  what  she  had  cut,  before 
she  cut  any  more. 

"  No,"  said  Mary;  "  that  would  not  be  pro- 
ceeding systematically." 

"Why?"  saidRollo. 

"Because,"  said  Mary,  "we  must  finish 
one  kind  of  work  before  we  begin  to  do  any 
of  a  different  kind.  You  see  now  I  have  got 
the  paper  and  the  scissors  all  here,  and  I  can 
finish  cutting  out  the  papers  best  now." 

So  Mary  cut  out  the  other  sheet  just  as  she 
did  the  first,  and  piled  up  the  squares  all  be- 
fore her  upon  the  bench,  and  then  gave  the 
scissors  back  to  Nathan. 

These  papers  now  were  large  enough  to 
make  a  whole  bag  of.  Rollo  thought  that  she 
was  going  to  paste  two  together  to  make  one 
bag;  but  she  showed  him  that  one  would  be 
large  enough  folded  over  again.  She  accord- 
ingly took  up  a  considerable  number  at  a 
time,  and  folded  them  over,  and  cut  them  with 
her  scissors,  in  such  a  manner  that  the  edges 
of  the  under  halves  projected  beyond  the  edges* 
of  the  upper  halves. 

Then  she  showed  Rollo  how  to  paste  them. 
She  took  some  of  Rollo' s  gum-arabic,  made 
very  thick  and  stiff,  and  with  it  pasted  the 


172  ROLLo's   VACATION. 

edges  that  projected,  and  then  showed  Rollo 
how  to  fold  them  over  and  press  them  down. 

"  Now,"  said  she,  "  Rollo,  you  may  take 
this  bundle  and  go  out  to  the  other  end  of  the 
bench,  and  paste  them  while  I  cut  out  the 
rest." 

Rollo  did  so,  talking  all  the  time  with  Mary 
and  Thanny,  who  sat  still  upon  the  corner  of 
the  bench,  cutting.  Rollo  soon  began  to  be 
surprised  to  see  how  fast  he  was  making  bags. 

"  I  have  made  six  already,  Mary,"  said  he. 

"Yes,"  said  Mary;  "that  is  because  we 
went  to  work  systematically.  We  are  making 
them  all  together,  and  so  we  work  to  advan- 
tage." 

Presently  Mary  came,  with  the  rest  of  her 
papers  cut  out,  to  the  end  of  the  bench  where 
Rollo  was  working;  and  Nathan,  when  he 
saw  them  going  away  from  where  he  was 
sitting,  wanted  to  come  and  paste  too. 

"Oh  no,  Nathan,"  said  Rollo;  "you  stay 
and  cut  paper." 

But  Nathan  threw  down  his  scissors,  and 
began  to  get  up  to  come  to  Mary  and  Rollo. 

"  Now  what  shall  we  do?"  said  Rollo,  in  a 
desponding  tone.  "  He  will  come  and  spoil 
all  our  pasting." 


173 

"  Oh  no,"  said  Mary.  "  We  will  manage  it 
We  will  let  him  paste  too." 

So  Mary  moved  away  some  of  the  papers 
of  seeds  that  were  nearest  to  the  place  where 
she  and  Rollo  were  at  work,  and  thus  made 
a  place  for  Nathan. 

"  Oh  dear  me,"  said  Rollo.  "  He  can't  paste 
— he  will  only  spoil  the  bags."  , 

"  No  matter,"  said  Mary.  "We  have  got  so 
many  we  can  let  him  spoil  one  or  two." 

So  Mary  told  Nathan  she  would  show  him 
how  to  paste;  and  while  Rollo  was  folding 
down  and  pressing  one  which  he  had  just 
pasted,  Mary  pasted  hers,  talking  all  the  time 
to  Nathan,  telling  him  first  he  must  do  so, 
and  then  so,  and  then  fold  it  down  so. 

Nathan  looked  on,  very  much  interested; 
and  after  she  had  pasted  one  or  two  bags  she 
let  him  have  the  brush.  Rollo  began  to  want 
it  before  Nathan  was  done,  and  he  said  he 
wished  they  had  more  brushes.  But  Mary 
said  they  could  get  along  with  it,  without 
being  detained  much. 

When  Nathan  had  got  his  bag  pasted,  it 
took  him  some  time  to  fold  over  the  edges  and 
press  them  down.  While  he  was  busy  about 
this,  Rollo  and  Mary  got  several  more  bags 
pasted;  and  then  at  length  Rollo  asked  if  it 
15* 


174  hollo's  vacation. 

would  not  be  a  good  plan  to  spread  them  out 
in  the  sun  to  dry.  Mary  said*  it  would  be  an 
excellent  plan. 

She  looked  round  and  saw  that  the  sun 
was  shining  in  at  the  great  barn  door,  so  as 
to  cover  a  large  square  space  upon  the  floor. 
Rollo  got  a  broom  and  swept  this  clean,  and 
then  Mary  said  that  Rollo  might  let  Nathan 
help  him  put  the  bags  down  in  the  sun. 

Nathan  was  much  pleased  with  this  plan, 
and  Mary  lifted  him  down  from  the  bench. 
Rollo  showed  Nathan  how  to  lay  the  bags 
down  upon  the  floor,  and  then  he  and  Mary 
stood  at  the  bench  making  the  bags ;  and  as 
fast  as  they  finished  them  Nathan  would 
carry  them  and  spread  them  in  the  sun. 

They  worked  so  for  some  time,  and  manu- 
factured their  bags  quite  rapidly.  Presently 
they  set  Nathan  at  work  to  turn  the  bags 
over,  so  as  to  dry  the  other  side.  The  bags, 
however,  did  not  need  much  drying,  for  the 
gum  they  had  used  was  very  thick,  and  it 
did  not  wet  the  paper  very  much.  Thus  half 
an  hour  passed  away,  at  the  end  of  which 
time  they  had  made  all  the  bags. 

"  Now,"  said  Mary,  "  we  can  begin  to  put 
the  seeds  into  those  that  are  the  driest,  but 
we  must  write  the  names  upon  the  outside 


ROLLO'S    VACATION.  175 

of  the  bags  as  fast  as  we  put  them  in ;  and  so 
I  will  go  in  and  get  a  pen  and  ink,  while  you 
look  over  the  bags  and  pick  out  those  that 
are  driest. 

So  Mary  went  in  after  the  pen  and  ink, 
and  Rollo  looked  over  the  bags ;  and  wherever 
he  found  one  that  was  dry  he  gave  it  to  Na- 
than, and  he  carried  it  to  the  bench. 

When  Mary  came  back,  she  and  Rollo 
went  to  the  bench,  and  Rollo  began  to  fill  the 
bags  with  seeds,  and  to  fold  over  the  top  and 
paste  it  down.  As  fast  as  he  did  this  he 
handed  the  bag  to  Mary,  and  she  wrote  the 
name  of  the  seed  upon  the  back  of  the  bag. 
Where  the  seeds  were  large,  they  put  in 
enough  to  fill  the  bag ;  but  where  they  were 
small  they  put,in  only  a  few,  about  as  many 
as  they  would  want  to  plant  of  one  kind  in 
one  place. 

Pretty  soon  Nathan  became  tired  of  having 
nothing  to  do,  and  he  came  up  to  the  bench, 
and,  putting  his  hands  upon  the  edge,  stood 
up  upon  tiptoe,  trying  to  see.  So  Mary  looked 
around  to  see  if  they  had  not  got  more  than 
they  should  want  of  some  kinds  of  seeds,  so 
that  she  could  give  Nathan  some  to  put  into 
his  bag. 

As  she  looked  over  the  papers,  Rollo  seemed 


176 

to  think  there  were  none  that  they  could  spare 
very  well ;  but  presently  he  thought  of  a  plan. 

"I  will  run  out  into  the  garden,"  said  he, 
"  and  get  him  a  great  sunflower,  and  let  him 
get  out  the  seeds  himself.  They  will  be  very 
good  to  fill  up  his  bag." 

Mary  approved  of  this  plan,  and  away 
Rollo  went.  Presently  he  returned  with  a 
large  sunflower,  the  leaves  and  little  flowerets 
dropping  off,  and  the  black  seeds  shining  m 
patches  all  over  its  face.  He  broke  this  up 
and  gave  some  pieces  to  Nathan,  and  showed 
him  how  he  must  rub  out  the  seeds.  Nathan 
was  well  satisfied  with  this  arrangement,  and 
sat  down  and  amused  himself  a  long  time 
with  his  seeds  and  his  bag. 

At  length,  however,  he  got  tired  again, 
and,  laying  down  his  things,  came  back,  and 
wanted  to  come  to  the  bench  again.  He  said 
he  wanted  to  carry  some  more  bags  to  dry. 
So  Mary  handed  him  the  bags  which  were 
finished;  and  as  the  top  of  each  had  been 
pasted  down  over,  she  thought  it  would  be 
well  to  have  them  lie  in  the  sun  again  a  few 
minutes.  So  Nathan  found  a  very  pleasant 
employment,  for  some  time,  in  carrying 
the  bags  and  putting  them  down  upon  the 
floor. 


ROLLO'S    VACATION.  177 

At  last  the  work  was  done.  The  bags 
were  all  rilled,  and  the  seeds  were  all  used, 
except  a  few  of  the  most  common  kinds,  and 
those  they  threw  away.  Mary  then  sent 
Rollo  in  for  a  small  basket,  and  they  put  all 
the  bags  into  it.  They  also  gathered  up  all 
the  loose  papers,  and  laid  them  away  together 
where  they  could  get  them  again,  if  they 
should  want  to  gather  more  seeds  some  other 
day. 

The  children  then  walked  along  together 
into  the  house,  Nathan  coming  after  them 
with  the  basket  of  seeds,  which  Mary  had 
given  him  to  carry.  It  was  now  nearly  sup- 
per-time. As  there  was  a  prospect  of  a  cool 
evening,  Rollo  and  Mary  made  a  little  fire  in 
the  parlor ;  Nathan  standing  by  and  looking 
on  with  pleasure  to  see  the  curling  smoke 
and  blue  flame  bursting  out  from  among  the 
chips  and  shavings. 

"  What  a  beautiful  boy  Nathan  has  been 
this  afternoon,"  said  Rollo. 

"What  a  good  boy,  yon  mean,"  said 
Mary. 

^Yes,"  said  Rollo;  "he  has  not  troubled 
us  at  all." 

"And  don't  you  know  the  reason?"  said 
Mary. 


178 


"No,"  replied  Rollo. 

"  Why,  we  have  anticipated  him."'  . 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  that  ?" 

"  Why,  to  anticipate  is  to  do  something 
beforehand.  If  now  you  should  hear  father 
coming,  and  should  go  and  place  a  chair  for 
him  by  the  fire,  you  would  anticipate  his 
wishes.  If  you  should  wait  till  he  comes  in 
and  tells  you  to  get  a  chair  for  him,  then  you 
would  not  anticipate  him.  So  if  you  should 
give  Nathan  a  piece  of  bread  as  soon  as  he 
gets  up  in  the  morning,  before  he  had  asked 
for  it,  that  would  be  anticipating  his  wishes 
for  bread." 

"  Is  that  it  ?  "  said  Rollo.  "  Well,  I  think 
it  is  an  excellent  way." 

"Yes;  it  is.  Now  the  way  we  have  kept 
Nathan  pleasant  is,  we  have  not  waited  till 
he  got  impatient  and  fretful  because  he  had 
nothing  to  do.  We  have  got  him  amusements 
beforehand." 

Nathan  stood  by,  listening  very  attentively 
to  this  discourse,  with  his  hands  behind  him, 
and  his  eyes  fixed,  first  on  Rollo,  then  on 
Mary.  He  knew  that  they  were  talking 
about  him,  but  he  could  not  understand  one 
word  of  what  they  were  saying,  from  begin- 


179 

ning  to  end.  So  he  turned  away  when  they 
stopped  talking  and  marched  off  singing. 

"  I'll  go  and  get  him  some  playthings  now,'1 
said  Rollo.  "Here,  Nathan,  I  will  get  yon 
your  blocks. 'r  ' 

So  saying,  he  opened  a  closet  door,  and 
from  under  a  shelf  there  he  pulled  out  a  bas- 
ket of  blocks.     They  were  Nathan's  blocks. 

Rollo  had  pasted  some  letters  upon  these 
blocks  some  days.- before.  He  had  cut  out  the 
letters  from  a  newspaper  which  his  father  had 
given  him,  and  pasted  them  upon  the  blocks, 
one  upon  the  middle  of  each  side.  He  thought 
that  this  would  help  Nathan  learn  the  letters, 
as  he  would  always  see  them  when  he  was 
playing  with  his  blocks. 

Nathan  liked  the  blocks  with  the  letters 
pasted  upon  them  very  much,  but  he  seemed 
to  like  picking  the  letters  off  better  than  learn- 
ing them ;  for  the  first  day  he  had  them  he 
picked  off  four,  before  Rollo  knew  what  he 
was  doing. 

His  mother  then  told  him  that  he  must  not 
pick  off  the  letters,  and  Rollo  got  his  gum- 
bottle  and  pasted  them  on  as  well  as  he  could, 
though  they  were  somewhat  torn.  Still  they 
came  off  pretty  easily,  because  Rollo  only 
pasted  the  letters  at  the  four  corners,  and 


180 

therefore  the  paper  did  not  stick  to  the  wood 
in  the  middle.  Notwithstanding  his  mother's 
prohibition,  however,  he  did  pull  off  one  or 
two  more ;  and  his  mother  punished  him  by- 
making  him  sit  down  in  a  corner  of  the  room 
alone  for  some  time.  After  that  he  did  not 
pull  off  any  more..  • 

When  Rollo,  therefore,  gave  Nathan  his 
blocks  at  this  time,  he  did  net  expect  that  he 
would  pull  off  any  of  the  letters ;  and  he  left 
him  playing  with  them  before  the  fire,  while 
he  and  Mary  began  to  set  the  table  for  supper. 
Rollo  brought  out  the  cups  and  plates  and 
knives  from  the  closet,  and  Mary  arranged 
them  properly  upon  the  table.  While  they 
were  doing  this,  Mary  talked  with  Rollo  about 
Nathan.  She  told  him  that  he  was  old  enough 
to  take  a  good  deal  of  care  of  his  little  brother. 

"  If  you  take  pains  to  anticipate  his  wishes 
and  wants,"  said  she,  "you  can  keep  him 
pleasant  a  long  time;  and  then,  besides,  Rollo, 
you  can  teach  him  a  good  many  things." 

"Canl?"  said  Rollo. 
.  :• "  Yes ;  you  can  explain  things  to  him,  and 
when  he  does  anything  wrong  you  can  tell 
him  why  it  is  wrong.     You  see  he  is  a  little 
fellow  yet,  and  does  not  know  much." 

It  was  not  long  before  a  case  occurred  by 


ROLLO'S   VACATION.  181 

which  Mary  showed  Rollo  how  an  older  bro- 
ther or  sister  could  teach  a  younger  one ;  for 
it  happened  that  as  Rollo  was  passing  back 
and  forth  to  the  closet,  he  cast  his  eyes  down 
to  the  basket,  and  saw  a  block  with  four  little 
bits  of  paper  pasted  upon  it  near  the  middle. 
He  took  it  up,  and  found  that  they  were  the 
four  corners  of  one  of  his  letters,  the  middle 
part  having  been  torn  out. 

"  There,  now,  Thanny  has  been  tearing  off 
another  of  my  letters,"  said  he,  taking  up  the 
block. 

"  Did  you,  Thanny?"  said  Mary,  coming 
up  to  the  basket  and  taking  the  block  from 
Rollo' s  hand. 

"No,"  said  Nathan. 

"  Did  not  you  tear  it  off?"  said  Mary. 

"No,"  said  Nathan,  positively.  "I  did 
not." 

Mary  looked  at  him,  somewhat  uncertain 
whether  he  was  telling  the  truth  or  not. 

"I  know  he  did,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Perhaps  he  did  not,"  said  Mary.  "It  may 
have  been  one  which  was  torn  off  before." 

Rollo  was  not  convinced,  but  he  went  on 

with  his  work ;  and  presently,  when  the  table 

was  set,  Mary  told  Nathan  to  pick  up  his 

blocks  and  put  them  in  the  basket,  so  as  to  be 

16 


182 

ready  for  supper.  Rollo  helped  him  do  this, 
and  after  they  had  got  the  blocks  all  in  Rollo 
looked  upon  the  carpet,  and  there,  behold,  the 
very  letter  was  lying  which  came  off  of  the 
block. 

Mary  saw  it  too.  She  took  it  up,  and  then 
looked  in  the  basket  to  find  the  block  which 
it  belonged  to.  The  letter  was  a  G,  and  the 
corners  were  off.  They  had  been  left  stick- 
ing to  the  block.  Mary  applied  the  letter  to 
the  block,  and  found  that  the  corners  of  it  fit- 
ted exactly  to  the  corners  which  had  been  left 
adhering  to  the  block. 

Mary  then  led  little  Thanny  to  a  chair  by 
the  side  of  the  fire,  and  showed  him  the  block 
and  the  letter.  He  stdod  before  her,  looking 
at  them  as  she  held  them  in  her  lap,  and  with 
an  expression  of  great  seriousness  in  his  coun- 
tenance. 

"  You  tore  it  off,  Nathan,  didn't  you?" 

"  Yes,"  said  Nathan. 

"But,"  said  Mary,  "a  little  while  ago  I 
asked  you  if  you  tore  it  off,  and  you  said  no ; 
but  you  did  tear  it  off.  That  is  naughty.  It 
is  naughty  for  you  to  tell  me  you  did  not  tear 
it  off  when  you  did." 

Nathan  looked  on  with  a  countenance  of 
considerable  concern,  but  he  did  not  speak. 


183 


"  That  is  a  lie"  said  Mary,  slowly  and  seri- 
ously; "and  a  lie  is  very  naughty  and 
wicked*.     God  heard  you  tell  the  lie." 

Here  Nathan  looked  up  all  around  the 
room,  and  said, 

"  I  guess  not, — I  don't  see  him  anywhere." 

"  No,  you  can't  see  him,  but  he  sees  you, 
and  he  knows  when  you  tell  a  lie.  God  does 
not  love  little  boys  that  say  they  didn't  when 
they  did." 

Nathan  now  began  to  look  anxious  and 
distressed.  He  took  up  a  corner  of  his  apron 
to  wipe  away  a  tear  that  started  into  his  eye, 
and  said,  with  a  mournful  voice, 

"  I  am  sorry  I  made  a  lie.  I  will  not  make 
a  lie  any  more." 

Mary  then  told  him  that  God  would  forgive 
him  if  he  was  sorry-,  and  took  him  up  in  her 
lap.  Rollo  came,  and  took  the  block  and  the 
letter  and  put  them  into  the  basket,  and  had 
just  time  to  put  the  basket  away,  when  his 
father  and  mother  came  in  to  supper. 


184 


CONCLUSION. 

The  first  week  of  Rollo's  vacation  passed 
away  very  rapidly,  but  by  that  time  he 
began  to  get  a  little  out  of  employment. 
About  the  beginning  of  the  second  week,  his 
father  said  one  evening  that  he  was  going  to 
send  Jonas  into  the  city  to  get  a  box  which 
came  up  the  river  in  a  packet.  Rollo  asked 
his  father  to  let  him  go  too,  and  after  some 
hesitation  he  consented. 

"  Do  you  think  you  can  get  ready  without 
making  any  trouble?"  said  his  father. 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Rollo. 

"One  great  objection-  to  letting  boys  go 
anywhere,"  said  his  father,  "is,  that  they 
make  a  great  deal  of  trouble  sometimes  about 
being  dressed.  Now  you  must  be  careful  and 
not  give  Mary  any  trouble.  Mary,  I  should 
like  to  have  you  get  him  ready  before  break- 
fast to-morrow  morning." 

Accordingly  the  next  morning,  at  breakfast- 
time,  Rollo  came  into  the  room  with  bright 
looks,  and  neatly  dressed,  Mary  following 
him. 


ROLLO'S    VACATION.  185 

"  Mary,"  said  he,  "  can't  I  do  anything  for 
you  in  the  city?" 

"Yes,"  said  Mary;  "I  want  a  new  draw- 
ing-pencil.    Could  you  get  me  one?" 

"  Oh  yes,"  said  Rollo.  "  I  can  buy  a  pen- 
cil well  enough,  I  know." 

"  Well,  I  will  get  you  the  money." 

So  Mary  went  to  a  table  at  the  side  of  the 
room,  where  her  workbox  stood.  She  opened 
the  box  and  took  out  a  little  purse,  and  from 
the  purse  took  a  quarter  of  a  dollar,  and 
handed  it  to  Rollo.  She  gave  him  the  direc- 
tions, and  had  just  finished  telling  him  where 
to  go,  when  his  father  and  mother  came  in  to 
breakfast. 

After  breakfast  Rollo  and  his  father  went 
out  to  the  yard,  and  there  they  found  the 
horse  already  harnessed,  and  fastened  to  a 
j)Ost.  Jonas  was  just  opening  the  great  gate. 
Rollo  went  to  the  wagon  and  began  to  climb 
in,  but  his  father  told  him  to  stop  a  minute, 
for  he  wanted  first  to  give  them  their  direc- 
tions. 

So  Jonas  and  Rollo  came  to  him,  where  he 
stood,  upon  the  piazza.  He  had  a  paper  in 
his  hand,  on  which  was  written  his  instruc- 
tions to  Jonas,  and  directions  to  the  places 
where  he  wished  him  to  go. '  The  city  was 
h*      16* 


186  hollo's  vacation. 

not  a  very  large  city,  and  both  Rollo  and  Jo- 
nas had  often  been  there.  He  charged  Jonas 
to  be  very  careful  of  Rollo  when  they  went 
down  to  the  wharf,  and  also  to  be  very  care- 
ful of  his  driving  when  he  should  get  into  the 
streets  of  the  city.  Then,  finally,  when  he 
had  finished  his  directions,  he  took  out  a  dol- 
lar and  handed  it  to  Jonas. 

"  The  freight  of  the  box,"  said  he,  "I  sup- 
pose will  be  a  quarter  of  a  dollar,  and  the  rest 
will  pay  for  your  dinner.  You  can  stop  at 
the  Eagle  tavern." 

"I  think,  sir,"  said  Jonas,  "we  can  get 
along  without  spending  anything  for  dinner." 

"Oh,  you  must  have  something  to  eat." 

"  Yes,  sir ;  and  I  have  got  Dorothy  to  put 
us  up  some  bread  and  butter,"  said  Jonas, 
pointing  to  a  small  parcel  done  up  in  brown 
paper,  which  was  in  a  little  basket  in  the 
front  part  of  the  wagon. 

"Very  well,"  said  Hollo's  father.  "But 
then  the  horse?" 

"  I  have  got  some  oats  for  him,"  said  Jonas, 
"  under  the  seat." 

Rollo  looked  back  and  forth,  first  at  Jonas, 
then  at  his  father,  during  this  dialogue.  The 
latter  smiled  as  Jonas  told  him  of  his  arrange- 
ments, and,  after  a  moment's  pause,  said, 


187 

"  Very  well ;  if  you  get  along  without  ex- 
pense, you  may  have  the  three  quarters  of  a 
dollar  to  spend  for  anything  you  want,  half 
for  you  and  half  for  Rollo.  Now  get  into  the 
wagon." 

There  was  a  good  comfortable  buffalo-skin 
Upon  the  back  seat,  and  another  in  the  bottom 
of  the  wagon  before.  Rollo  and  Jonas  both 
had  their  great  coats  on ;  for  it  was  a  coolj 
though  pleasant  morning.  Rollo  clambered 
up  while  Jonas  unfastened  the  horse.  Then 
he  also  took  his  seat,  and  the  boys  drew  up 
the  buffalo  around  them.  Jonas  drove  the 
horse  slowly  out  of  the  yard,  and  then,  turn- 
ing round  into  the  road,  set  off  upon  the  trot, 
Rollo  bowing  a  good  bye  to  his  mother  and 
sister,  who  stood  smiling  at  the  window. 

They  rode  along  pleasantly  over  -a  smooth 
and  level  road,  with  fields,  and  trees,  and  farm- 
houses on  each  side.  Rollo  asked  Jonas  how 
far  it  was  to  the  city.  He  said  it  was  about 
fifteen  miles  ;  but  it  was  about  twelve  to  the 
tavern  where  he  was  going  to  stop  to  dinner. 
Rollo  asked  what  tavern  it  was.  Jonas  said 
it  was  called  the  Roadside  Hotel. 

"But  I  thought,"  said  Rollo,  "you  was 
not  going  to  stop  at  any  tavern,  and  so  save 
the  money." 


188 

"  But  they  don't  make  us  pay  anything  at 
the  tavern  I  am  going  to  stop  at." 

"  Not  pay !"  said  Rollo.     "  Why  not?" 

"  Oh,  because.  I  have  stopped  there  a  good 
many  times,  and  I  never  had  to  pay  any- 
thing." 

Rollo  thought  this  was  strange;  but  at 
length,  when  they  had  rode  about  twelve 
miles,  Jonas  said  he  had  almost  come  to  the 
hotel.  So  he  turned  off  into  a  narrow  road, 
that  led  through  a  little  wood,  into  a  valley. 
At  the  bottom  of  the  valley  was  a  brook;  and 
when  Jonas  reached  it,  he  turned  off  out  of 
the  road,  upon  a  level  piece  of  grass  by  the 
side  of  an  old  wall,  with  trees  hanging  over 
it.  It  was  just  large  enough  to  hold  the 
wagon. 

"This  is  the  Roadside  Hotel,"  said  he, 
laying  down  the  reins  and  jumping  out  of  the 
wagon. 

They  watered  the  horse  at  the  brook,  and 
then  gave  him  his  oats  upon  the  grass,  by  the 
side  of  the  wall.  Jonas  and  Rollo  then  went 
under  the  bushes  to  the  bank  of  the  brook, 
where  they  sat  down  upon  some  flat  stones 
and  ate  their  bread  and  butter.  Rollo  liked 
the  Roadside  Hotel  very  much.* 

*  See  Frontispiece. 


RCLLO'S    VACATION.  189 

They  waited  here  some  time,  and  then  got 
into  the  wagon  and  rode  into  the  city.  Rollo 
had  a  fine  time  going  down  to  the  wharf,  after 
the  "box,  and  Jonas  told  him  a  great  deal  about 
the  sails  and  rigging  of  the  vessel.  They 
looked  about  afterwards  some  time  to  find 
something  to  buy  with  their  money,  but  could 
not  exactly  suit  themselves.  At  length,  how- 
ever, they  went  to  the  bookstore,  to  buy  Mary's 
pencil ;  and  then,  after  Rollo  had  bought  the 
pencil,  he  was  just  going  out  of  the  store, 
when  he  saw  a  book,  pretty  long,  and  with 
thin  covers,  open  at  a  very  handsome  pic- 
ture. 

"  What  is  the  price  of  this  picture-book?'' 
said  Rollo. 

"It  is  a  drawing-book,"  said  the  man; 
"  not  a  picture-book.  There  are  four  of  them 
that  go  together,  and  the  price  is  half  a 
dollar." 

"A  drawing-book?"  said  Jonas,  going. up 
to  look  at  it.  "I  should  like  to  learn  to 
draw." 

"'Well,"  said  the  man,  "all  you  have  got 
to  do  is  to  take  these  books,  and  begin  at  the 
beginning,  and  copy  all  these  drawings  care- 
fully." 


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